Hunting by Moonlight
by Laryna6
Summary: Imprisoned in Choral Castle, Luke realizes that there is something in his head. Since returning home means death for them both, his only choice is to leave his family behind and join Van in order to learn how to defeat him and the Score.
1. Chapter 1

And a Tales of the Abyss fic, as requested by the people who did the poll on my profile. This one has been incomplete in My Documents folder for ages, but I finally managed to get it done.

It gets hijacked by mythology in the last half, though. Also, this is one of those situations where I wish I could do the kind of formatting that got erased from my Are We Having Fun Yet? fic. To get across the if/then/else and y/n? of someone trying to figure out how to... If the thought in this seems simplistic, with cut-and-paste vocabulary, that's exactly what's going on. Babies are kind of cry y/n? I also find computer networking as applied to telepathy and minds in general interesting. Most of what 'Luke' is thinking is actually Asch's mind doing the thinking for him, aside from emotional reactions. Luke is trying to figure this out, but the neurons aren't hooked up yet and it's Asch that has the vocabulary.

Maybe instead of more Cinnanarverse my next original project should be Syarra... that's a world that really plays around with the whole brain is a computer concept, as applied to psychic powers and silicon-based computers, once they invented them. Telepathy-based/integrated internet.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss, Namco Bandai does, as well as related properties. No infringement intended or money made.

* * *

_There was something in his head._

Only it wasn't exactly in his head, just sort of in the room next to it. There was him, and his mind, and now there was another mind stuck on to his, like two rooms with an open door between them where there had once just been more blank wall. He was the one that went into the other one's head first, actually, to find out what was going on.

Not much.

It was just sort of sitting there watching, because it didn't know enough yet to do any thinking about it. There were moving things (people) that were making sounds (words), and this was something new to it and was utterly fascinating to the point it was ignoring the fact it wasn't at all comfy (what with being strapped to the replica machine and having what Luke recognized as the sort of headache that infernal contraption caused).

Luke could understand, however. "We don't have much more time," the nearby person (Dist) said, "we were lucky I was able to complete synchronizing their fon slots."

"It's more than good enough for the job. Good work, Dist. I'll take it out into the main area for them to find while you pack up and take Luke to Daath. Meet me there," Van ordered.

In other words… they were done making their fake. That meant no more painful sessions in the machine, it meant getting out of this horrible place… but they were going to do it. They were going to send the fake to his family.

"_Luke you? It I?" _The feeling was akin to having his sleeve tugged on, the infant looking up at him questioningly. Luke realized that since he'd been translating what came in through the replica's eyes and ears into actual words and things for his own benefit the replica had gotten the translation as well. He'd taught the replica his first words.

He felt nothing from the near-blank slate but a not-quite innocent curiosity. Innocent meant ignorant of evil, and his replica already understood that something was wrong. Luke was unhappy, and that was not good even if it didn't have words to pin to the concepts of right or wrong. It didn't like having a headache, or… Van was hitting it?

"Why are you doing that to my perfect creation? You know how much trouble it was to make it, if you damage it before it's grown stronger you could kill it!" Dist was outraged, although not for the replica's benefit but for all the work that could be wasted.

"It can't be helped. They won't believed it was traumatized into amnesia if there aren't any reasons it should be traumatized." Van ignored the replica's whimpers. "Here, make a scary face at it or something, that way it won't be frightened of only me but people in general."

The replica was easily scared. "_Why?" _it asked Luke since it couldn't speak to ask either of them.

"_I translated what they said, and the concepts, so you should know why." _

"_Why..." _

"_Why are they willing to hurt you for those reasons? Sometimes people do bad things."_

"_Hurt bad."_

"_Hurting someone_ is_ bad. Yes." _What an understatement.

"_Luke is hurt?" _Hurting was bad. The replica didn't want anyone else to hurt too.

"_I'm fine."_

He couldn't fool it. _"Van and Dist hurt Luke?" _It was worried about him. _"Luke is hurt. I help?" _

"_No, there's nothing you can do about it." _

"_Van and Dist hurt Luke and I. Van and Dist bad." _

Luke had to laugh. No, the replica wasn't stupid at all, once it had some idea what was going on.

"_Luke help I. Luke is good." _It was such a relief to the replica that thought of itself as 'it' that there was a good person who was helping it by explaining things and staying with it even though seeing through its eyes and hearing through its ears to know what was going on meant feeling the pain it experienced as well. It clung to him for comfort.

"_It's okay. He's doing this to make you act scared, mostly. So act like you're really scared. Flinch back, make a lot of those noises, curl up… See, there." _He hadn't been able to help himself, he'd been helpless. But at least he could help the baby with his face who was so pathetically grateful when Van stopped hurting it because of Luke's advice, when Luke saved it.

"_Luke is good," _it said again, and Luke could feel the honest love it had for him. Love and admiration. Luke knew what to do to make bad things stop.

He'd thought a replica would be a doll, a fake him, but this was nothing like him. Just a helpless little baby, even more defenseless than he'd been. At least he still knew what they were saying when they talked around him while he was captive here, at least he knew how to walk and wouldn't be hefted around like a side of meat, at least he could dream of fighting back, going home to be king. He knew there was more than this place. The replica was so very young, and its entire existence had been at the mercy of strange moving things, a world it didn't understand and so couldn't figure out how to control at all.

And Luke had thought he had it bad. _"Keep acting scared on the outside, or he might start doing it again." _

"_Okay!" _

Since he had warning that he was about to be moved Luke knew that the water he was given had to be drugged. He was really, really thirsty but he poured it into the chamberpot anyway. If they were leaving in a hurry then there might be some opportunity to escape.

"_That's the sky, and those white things are clouds."_

"_What is white?" _Besides pretty, but the replica thought most things were pretty.

"_It's a color. Most of the sky up there is blue, and the puffy things that are clouds, that's white. Our hair is red, Van's is brown, Dist's is white again, the stuff on the ground there, grass, is green…"_ Being almost entirely in the little one's body meant he didn't react when he was manhandled, which was lucky because otherwise they would have known he wasn't drugged. It didn't hurt that this was the first time he'd seen the sky in ages.

They chained him up even though they thought he was unconscious and the little one's ability to do anything useful was hindered by the fact he couldn't walk, talk, or even control his arms enough to make gestures very well. Luke knew that fighting involved training the body in what to do in certain situations, but it was strange to see the little one try to do things Luke took for granted and see that things he took for granted, like walking, had actually taken lots and lots of practice, just like katas, when he was too young to remember it.

"_Nouns are for people, places, and things. A thing is stuff that you can touch in general. You use 'he' and 'she' for people, but you use it for things. It's rude to call someone a thing." _Those ancient Ispanian lessons that had forced him to learn grammar were coming in handy.

"_It is for things?" _It wasn't a name?

"_You're not a thing," _Luke told him. _"They're just being rude, and I was at first. I'm sorry. Um… They were going to have you pretend to be me. Luke means light, the sixth fonon, so… sound, Lorelei is next and you're younger than me. Or I could call you Rem, or Luna. Those are the two aspects of the sixth fonon, the sun and moon." _

"_Um… Luna begins with Lue and Luke does?" _

"_Actually, it begins with L and u, just like Luke does. Do you want to be Luna?" _

"_Maybe. What is the moon?"_

"_The bright thing in the sky, the one it hurts to look at, is Rem, the sun. The arc across the sky is the fon belt. Luna is like Rem, only it comes out at night and it doesn't hurt to look at it. The light is silvery, not yellow."_

"_I think I want to see him first."_

"It _first. The moon is an it, the sentience is a… she, I think." _Luke thought about that for a moment. "_Shadow is a he, Gnome is a he, Sylph is a she, so is Undine, Efreet is a he, Rem is a she and so is Luna, and Lorelei is… he has to be a he, since we're his perfect isofons and we're male. Although the fonon sentiences aren't exactly male or female. It's complicated. But if… I'm confused."_

"_You're confused?" _It had to be really, really confusing then.

"_Yeah. I don't understand it myself. We're Lorelei's perfect isofons, so if we're connected like this then why aren't we connected to him?" _And, now that Luke thought about it, _"_Should_ I give you a girl's name?" _

"_A girl?"_

"_A young women, like we're boys who are young men. Women have things that stick out on their chests called breasts and don't have things that stick out down below." _He was not giving the talk to someone only a few days old, especially since _he_ hadn't gotten the talk yet. _"Natalia is a girl." _He showed Luna a picture. _"Guy is a boy."_

"_Her chest doesn't stick out."_

"_She's too young. They get them when they're older. Here's mother."_

"_Mother?" _

"_People who aren't replicas come from a mother and a father, a woman and a man." _Thinking about her made Luke realize something. _"They're taking you to my home. They'll think you're me." _What was he going to do about that? Because once Luke went home Luna would be killed. There was no way around that. Luke's father and uncle wouldn't listen. A fake future king, an imposter with the power of hyperresonance?

Luna couldn't take care of himself, and there was no one who would protect him except Luke. Luke was his only real family.

Van had said that if Luke went home Luke would die. That might or might not be true, but if Luke went home _Luna_ would die. Luke was too young to live on his own, managing it with a baby would be impossible!

What was he going to do? He had to go home to be king, they were counting on him, but how could he be a good king if he couldn't even take care of one person?

"_Are you okay?" _

"_Not really." _There wasn't much point in lying to Luna. He knew when Luke was doing it and it made him worry a lot more than anything he actually understood did. _"But I'll figure something out so that we'll both be okay." _

"_Okay." _Such trust there. But Luna still was sad. _"I wish I could help. I can't fight or call for help or anything." _Luke had been trying to think of what Luna could do to help him escape and the answer was nothing. Luna had been very, very disappointed, and he'd only just managed to cheer him up.

"_You're a newborn, Luna. All babies are like that. You're actually way ahead of most of them. You learn really fast and I know you'll learn to walk fast and everything too." _If Luke went home Luna would die, and then Luke would, according to Van. If Luke took Luna with him and left he wouldn't be able to take care of Luna even if he was able to kidnap him, which he seriously doubted. So… _"My parents did a good job teaching me, and I have tutors. They'll think you just forgot things, so they'll teach you the same way they taught me. And there's Guy, and Natalia. They'll help you too. But I can't go home right now, Luna. And they'll be sad if they think I'm in danger. So you'll have to pretend to be me so they won't be sad. Will you do that for me?"_

"_Okay." _Luna was glad Luke wanted him to do something, happy that Luke thought that he could learn and wasn't useless.

If Luke stayed gone then Luna would, according to Van, die in Luke's place. What kind of coward did Van think he was, that he would let a child, his own blood, die in his place? It was in the Score, Van said. Van wanted Luke's help to overthrow the Score.

So… if he pretended to be loyal to Van, then he could find out the details of the Score of death, he could… He _had to_ find some way to save them both.

He had to try, at least.


	2. Chapter 2

I'd give more of an A/N to this, but I just got given a 20 min warning to get ready out of the blue. It may also need some editing. Please inform me if so?

* * *

"Sir, what shall we do with them?" the Oracle Knight asked. He had a name, but Asch had never bothered to learn it. As Special Operations god-general, he worked alone and he preferred it that way. It was foolish to let any of them get close to him. As though there was a man or woman in his unit who wasn't loyal to Van above all.

Except him, of course. "Let them go."

"Asch?" Legretta seemed taken aback. "Have you forgotten your orders? Or have you just decided to ignore them?"

"Just?" He spun around, taking the blade that had been drawn on the Necromancer (supposedly) and slicing through the middle of the man whose sword had forced Luna and Tear to stay on the ground. "I've been waiting a long time for this. Tear! If you're serious about stopping Van, then Major Legretta is your enemy!"

"Asch?" Van's little sister, who he and Legretta had both trained, both planning to use her against Van (it was lucky that Asch hadn't been foolish enough to risk allying with another god-general), didn't understand what was going on, even though she claimed to. "I understand!"

"Asch, what are you doing?" Legretta managed to break out of his reach after the third hit of fang blade.

"Oh, I don't know. Saving the world." How trite, yet true.

"You… do you seriously think you can succeed in this?" Her attempt to get away from Asch's swing brought her into Luna's reach. The necromancer had also darted forward.

They were mostly distractions. Legretta wouldn't risk killing Luna, not right now, or Tear, not as long as she thought there were other options. The longer he kept her talking, the more likely he could kill her before she alerted the others.

"Let me think. Largo's dead, and not even Van could revive him." Asch had made sure of that. "Arietta is off chasing Anise and Ion. I kill you, I kill Arietta when she brings Ion back… three down, three to go. Sync's waiting at Shurrey Hill, Dist is still en route from Choral Castle, and Van's at Kaitzur pretending to care." If he started casting fonic artes she might get the sense to run for it, so it was sword against knife, gun, and her own occasional efforts. "Tear, stay back and concentrate on keeping them active! If you run out of gels or bottles I'll throw you my item bag!" Since Luna and Tear had never been in real combat and Jade had his slots sealed they didn't have the accumulated fonic strength that added to the body's weak natural resilience and strength. All three knew a lot of fonic artes that they weren't strong enough to use yet.

Irritating. He'd hoped Van would let Luna run loose a little longer, but while Luna had taken advantage of the time he had, going across the Rugnica plains on foot to get as much experience as he could they still weren't much against Legretta. "Tear, don't hold back on items! Until you get stronger your first aid is too little too slow!"

"Yes, sir!"

The melee had brought him next to the Necromancer. "God-general Asch the Bloody, am I correct?"

"No, but that's good enough for now." When he'd faced down the inventor of fomicry just moments ago he'd seen a glimmer of suspicion. He and Luna had led very different lives and even though Asch didn't wear a mask the same face, the same voice seemed worlds apart on each of them. Still, if that clue hadn't fanned that spark into light then he was going to be very disappointed in the man. "The same as calling you Col. Curtiss is good enough for now. Of course, I wouldn't want to be associated with Dr. Balfour and his poor taste in friends either."

Legretta didn't seem to have gotten the idea yet. Good. "Asch?" Why not just declare his true identity? Then, trying to avoid Luna, she stumbled. She got to her feet quickly, but not as quick as she should have. Her eyes widened as she tried to use a panacea bottle.

"Don't bother," Asch told her, smiling. "There there some things those don't work on, and the miasma is one of them."

"The miasma?" Tear gasped as Legretta gaped.

"Why not? It's the same fate she wanted everyone else to suffer."

"How did you…" How had she gotten exposed to so much, affecting her so quickly?

"Do you know what the miasma is, Legretta?" He managed to hit her to the ground this time, although she rolled away. "No one in Yulia City does_. _It's anger, Legretta. Wrath. At those willing to sacrifice countless innocents to bring about the future they desired. The memories of the victims of the war Yulia _won._ You're not poisoned, Legretta. You're cursed. The third fonon can be used to bring wind or lightning. The seventh fonon can heal… or doom."

"An offensive seventh fonic arte? Tear can use it to call on the first fonon to damage an enemy, but I've never heard of a pure application of it being used to harm." Jade was intrigued.

"What do you think the Score is? But the fonon itself doesn't like to be used for that, no. The miasma contains the desire for vengeance of all those victims. When that vengeance is appeased it will become normal seventh fonon again, and you can't do this with that unless you're Yulia."

"The miasma is… ghosts?" Tear was almost meeping.

"No. The fon belt is what contains ghosts. There's nothing like a personality left in the miasma, not even Lorelei's." Asch smirked. "Still think I'm weak for carrying around gels when a _real _god-general shouldn't need such crutches, Legretta?" Her guns skittered across the deck. "Those might have bought you time, but they wouldn't save you. I cast this arte right before we came down here, and you let me, thinking it was a support arte. You don't have much time left."

"Damn you!" Her frenzied assault on him was pointless, and they both knew it.

"Hell is the company you keep. Say goodbye to this world and hello to Lorelei, Legretta the Quick!" Focusing, he entered overlimit. "Rending saber!"

Shortly after he sheathed his sword Legretta started to fade away as she fell to the ground, millions of golden seventh fonons streaming downwards and then millions more up to the fon belt. It would take the deaths of around nine hundred people still to completely purify the miasma this way… but at least it was a start, and purifying it by force would take more than ten times as many and more control than he could muster. He'd used this arte on all of the people Van ordered him to kill that he could get away with, and all of his own targets. To hide its nature he'd killed them before the curse aspect took effect, but Van knew it as an arte that prevented revival and thus actually ordered Asch to use it.

Sadly, it couldn't be used on seventh fonists, much less descendants of Yulia. They were too attuned to the true nature of the fonon: it would take more than he could channel even if he killed himself doing it to doom Van.

So: Legretta was gone, and those fonons would have vastly improved the combat prowess of the others. Now, back to business. "Colonel Jade Curtiss."

"Yes, God-general Asch the Bloody? Or would you prefer an alternate mode of address?"

Asch wasn't in the mood to fill people in on what they should be perfectly capable of figuring out on their own. "Your mission is a failure. Turn around, go home, and give this to Peony." Asch handed over a scroll case. "Kimlasca will not make peace. They have been planning this war since N. D. 1999, when King Ingobert married his sister Suzanne to Duke Fabre even though her doctors said bearing a child would kill her. They would have been right… if it weren't for the child the Score predicted she would bear. 'N. D. 2000. In Kimlasca shall be born one who inherits the power of Lorelei. He will be a boy of royal blood with hair of red. He shall be called the light of the sacred flame, and he will lead Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to new prosperity.'"

Tear looked at Luna. _"Are you sure about this?" _Luna asked. _"I mean, we both think we can trust them, but we've never trusted _anyone_ with this before."_

Luna needed more confidence: he had a tendency to always leave the final decision up to Asch. _"You're the one the world knows as Luke. It's your choice."_

"The Score isn't talking about me there. Or not just me." Luna took a deep breath. "N. D. 2018. The young scion of Lorelei's power shall bring his people to the miner's city. There, the youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca, destroying himself and the city."

"That's a Score of death!" Tear gasped. Revealing one of those was forbidden, and what a Score it was!

Luna nodded. "He's the Luke fon Fabre that was born in N. D. 2000. But I'm the scion of Lorelei's power, the power of Lorelei that he inherited."

"_I can't believe it took seven years to figure that out. Sure, Lorelei was trying to keep Van from figuring it out, but _Van_ doesn't get headaches every time he reads the damn thing!"_ Asch complained.

"_I'm sorry. They wouldn't let me anywhere near a fonstone with the Score on it, so I couldn't help."_

"_There wasn't anything you could have done." _

"To make a long story short," Asch said aloud, to stop wheels turning behind the Necromancer's eyes (if he tried to even touch Luna to prevent the destruction Asch would kill him), "Van kidnapped me ten years ago and had Dist create Luna with fomicry so that he would die in my place. He expected me to be perfectly happy with being taken away with my home, being painfully experimented on to create a perfect isofon, and letting a child suffer my fate." How insulting!

"Why didn't you just go home?" Jade asked. "After all, Luke wouldn't have had your memories. You would obviously have been the real one."

"And then what would have happened to him? They would have killed him. And then made very, very sure I died as the Score foretold. Why? Because the Score that Luna quoted went on to say that that disaster would start a war. A war that would cause Malkuth to lose territory and lead to unprecedented prosperity for Kimlasca." Asch folded his arms. "They won't listen to you if you preach peace. It would be against the Score, after all. Grand Maestro Mohs is supervising this personally, as it's the most important event of, oh, since the one who would seize glory, Vandesdelca was used to destroy Hod by the researchers there. In fact, more important, but then the Order of Lorelei has never cared about _Lorelei_."

"Van… destroyed Hod?" That just couldn't be true, Tear's devastated face pleaded.

Asch's eyes softened. "He was strapped into a machine that made him generate an imperfect hyperresonance that he couldn't control. You can't blame him for it, Tear. He did everything he could. You can blame your grandfather for knowing that would happen to him. You can blame Van for plotting Auldrant's demise and Eldrant's rise as the Score foretells as vengeance. But you can't blame him for Hod, Tear. It wasn't his fault." While Asch was talking a loud call had sounded. "Damn it, that's one of Arietta's pets letting us know she's almost here. Get inside, all of you!"

"Do as he says," Jade commanded, although Luna had already obeyed.

Once the door was shut they both looked at Luna. "My name is Luna, nice to meet you?" He smiled a bit sheepishly. "Um… I'm seven years old, Asch is my original and I'm his perfect isofon… oh, and we're both perfect isofons of Lorelei, so we have the power of hyperresonance and this is the first time I've ever actually told anyone this. Van thinks I don't know I'm not Luke and that Asch hates me."

"However did you pull that off?" They couldn't have been allowed to meet, so how could they arrange such a grand conspiracy, Jade wondered.

"We can talk to each other. He was giving me acting lessons before I managed to get my mouth to say words out loud. It's harder than babies make it look to learn how to talk."

"Yes… a replica's brain should be in perfect working order, but without the memories of the meanings of words or the physical training in walking or producing those words… But there was evidence there should be a child's lack of clear memory of their first few years of life."

"So there really are two masters?" Mieu had been silent this whole time. "I'm really confused. Mieu."

"The seventh fonon is the fonon of memory and stuff, so once we figured that out we both have perfect recall," Luna explained. "He's… His name means light, and Luna is the lesser manifestation of the sentience of light, and they both begin with Lu, like we look the same at first, and he's… he's important to me. He went to a lot of trouble for my sake, even though he says that if he hadn't he would have just died anyway so it's not my fault, and… Um…" Luna looked away. "This is the first time I've seen him in person, so I'm a little excited. And I fought Legretta and actually helped, even if not very much, so…" He blushed.

"That's quite fascinating, but what on earth is Van planning? If anyone should have reason to hate fomicry it would be him, and why would he go to such trouble to save the son of Duke Fabre?" It made no sense. "I suppose it's kind of Luke to give Malkuth advance notice of the war so that we can limit the destruction, but why all this?"

"Asch, not Luke. He decided that Luke is both of us." Asch was funny like that. "Van wants to bring about Eldrant. There are… Yulia had Luke be born because he could fight the Score. If the Score goes as it says, bad stuff will happen. Really, really bad stuff. So she had Lorelei create him and made sure that Van would find out about it. Van wants to use him to create Eldrant, a new world without the Score, but he wants to do it by destroying Auldrant. He hates the Score and everyone who follows it. He wants to execute the people who are responsible for Hod and everything else it does because they just blindly obey it. So… but he didn't understand a lot of things, mostly because he hates Lorelei and so can't really understand Yulia's feelings."

"Fight… the Score?" Tear stared, and Jade as well. People had to follow the Score if they wanted prosperity, yes, but the idea of actually going against it and succeeding? Inconceivable.

Luna nodded. "Oh, Asch says we need to stay in here. Arietta brought reinforcements. He said that he'll tell them we escaped, Largo and Legretta are chasing us, and the Tartarus is staying here until we're found and they're done with Ion so they spread out to look for us and don't come in here. Arietta… will be dead by midnight. She'll be asleep, so… We can escape then."

"So you can speak to each other? I thought perfect isofons might have some sort of connection, but actual two-way instant communication?"

"It might be because we're us."

"All of this is…" rather unbelievable. Yet, from the evidence… Jade opened the scroll case to reveal a very long and tightly wound scroll, with the sort of security precautions Peony's message to Kimlasca had. "Very disconcerting." He'd banned fomicry, and after Hod… Did no one… He would have preferred to not find all this out at once, but better to find out how bad it was now so he could start coping.

"Tear, are you okay?"

"I… I came to the outer lands to kill him because I knew he was doing something terrible. I haven't changed my mind. I'll help you, Luke, I mean Luna, and Captain Asch." Even though Major Legretta had just vanished before her eyes. Van had to be stopped. "Is this why you trusted me even though I was trying to kill your teacher?"

"I'm sorry I got on your case about that. Asch had no idea you were going to do this, and I was pretending to be Luke and 'Luke' trusts 'Master Van,' so I had to be a brat who thought you were an enemy. I actually like you a lot, Tear. You're my third friend ever."

"Who is the other one?"

"Other one? There's Guy, who was there when you showed up, cousin Natalia, and Ion."

"…What about Asch?" She'd thought Luke, no, Luna's friends were her, Asch, and someone else.

Luna shook his head. "Asch isn't my_ friend_, he's… Asch." Calling him just a friend? "We used to be one person."

"That's an interesting way to describe replica data extraction." Jade rolled the scroll closed for the moment. He needed to think about what he'd read before moving on. "Or that the fonons that formed you used to be a part of him, that would be a less poetic way of putting it. In non-isofon replicas the fonons were distorted during the process, but they still tend to see each other as family, even in the more vicious monster species. One could theorize that perfect isofons would have a tighter bond. There's also the fact that from your description he was the only person you were able to communicate with for quite awhile, and you would have been his only solace in enemy territory while he was pretending to serve his kidnapper." Under those circumstances, they could be far more emotionally dependant on each other than he had been to the only person who understood him. Losing Professor Nebilim had led to this.

"Nothing's anywhere near as important to me as Asch, and he needs me. You're right, he couldn't trust anyone, and I had to lie too. Otherwise we both would have died, me right away and Asch along with an entire city of innocent people. So… I'm not used to telling other people the truth. Not even _Guy_, and he's my best friend. But I'd never lie to Asch."

Jade made a mental note of that. It appeared that like his name sake, that changed its aspect between light and dark, Luna also was two-faced. A habitual deceiver who had been able to fool Jade, in fact. He'd thought he was just a brat, but, in fact, how he treated Ion hadn't meshed with that. Ion had picked it up from the beginning. Jade had just thought Ion was giving 'Luke' too much credit.

The 'real' Luna seemed a lot like Ion, actually.

"What are you going to do?" Tear asked. "No, what are we going to do?"

"Well, our main enemies are Van, Mohs, Cantabile, Legretta, Sync, Largo, Arietta, and Dist."

"Cantabile?"

"The god-general of division six. No one's heard of her. Asch is special ops, but there are some things Van doesn't want him to have rubbed in his face. Cantabile is… Um, yeah. Asch has only even_ seen_ her a few times. But she won't be a problem. She had her replica data extracted at Hod, and now… She might even be dead already."

Jade didn't wince.

"But she's been on the enemy list since forever, so I said her with the rest of them. Largo is dead. Legretta is dead. Arietta won't last the night. Mohs is pretty weak, so unless he's got people to fight for him he's not a problem. Dist uses fontech to fight for him, and without it he's pretty weak, plus people who think they're smart always overlook things." Jade wondered if Luna included him in that. He would be right to. "Take away Sync's talisman and if he tried to fight me or Asch he wouldn't last long even without a curse. It's because he's a replica of Fon Master Ion. Fon Masters are sensitive to Lorelei, so it's really, really hard to make a replica with the potential not disappear into the fon belt right away. That's why my friend Ion gets so sick when he uses Daathic Fonic Artes."

"Fon Master Ion is a replica?" Both of them were startled.

Luna nodded. "He's only two years old. They programmed him with how to walk and talk. I think he might have guessed that either Asch or me is a replica, but he hasn't said anything. Asch has to pretend to hate replicas, so he stays away from him. Ion's… It's a bit like how Van is and you are, Tear. Although you're Yulia's descendants so even though you're less… connected to Lorelei than he is we're still… Even Asch doesn't hate Van, not really. I don't know if we can."

"Why not? If my brother did all that to you, how could you even stand being around him?"

"Because you're Yulia's descendants. Yulia was a very important person to Lorelei, and so… And Van's suffered so much because of the Score. We can't talk with Lorelei the way we do each other because he's bound, but we are still his isofons. So we share a lot of his feelings. Me more than Asch, I think. It would make sense if it's that way."

Make sense? Why the replica of the light of the sacred flame instead of the original? Replica. "Because you're made of pure seventh fonons. Seventh fonons that are isofonic with Lorelei, the manifestation of the mass consciousness of the seventh fonon."

Luna nodded.

"A replica of a human would not be that human, isofon or not. But Lorelei_ is_ what you just described."

"That's what Asch figured out. But the fonon sentiences should be sort of… mass minds? You could say that I'm 'a' Lorelei as opposed to 'the' Lorelei. The one in the core is… I'm glad I'm not him."

"The exact same person would become very different in two different environments. Seven years old as opposed to several thousand would be a huge difference." Luna was more than two-faced, then. Luna was a vessel of the consciousness composed of the memories of everyone who had ever lived or would ever live on Auldrant, for one thing.

"I'm me, though. I'm not a replacement for Asch, no one could be, and I'm not just a random cluster of fonons anymore than you are." Luna was right, Jade knew. What were humans but fonons and memories? "I might be Lorelei, but that doesn't mean I'm not me."

"Hurt his feelings and you will pay for it in blood." Asch stalked in. "Very clever, Necromancer, disabling the landship like that."

"Hmm? I haven't activated my method for disabling the Tartarus yet."

"Oh, but you have." Asch commandeered one of the bridge crew chairs. "Or so they think. No one will disturb me when I'm in one of my infamous rages, so we should be safe." Only he seemed anything but upset.

Their coordination was too perfect for it to not have been planned, although to the others it seemed surprising that Asch's arms would open right when Luna came to them, that Luna would sit in his lap exactly as Asch lifted his chin so Luna could tuck his head under it. No words were exchanged, no signal detectable to anyone but them. Their eyes closed as Asch stroked Luna's hair and Luna nosed at Asch's.

They were so… cute… (Must not squee in front of Captain Asch, must not squee must not squee must not squee!)

The moment was ruined when Mieu popped out of the item bag. "Hello, Master Asch!"

There was a fluffy thing that felt it had the right to climb on his Luna and interrupt their reunion. If looks could cast, Mieu would have been burnt to a crisp.

"_Are you jealous?"_

"_Yes!"_

"Uh, Thing, stay in the item bag for now, okay?" Luna stuffed him in and closed the clasp. Then they returned to snuggling.

Two people whose lives had revolved around each other for so long (all his life, in Luna's case) were now meeting for the very first time. Had they ever wondered if it was all a dream? Something too good to be true, a fantasy of someone who cared in a way Jade personally doubted people ever would care for each other in real life? 'Luke' had so many problems because of his amnesia: basic knowledge, being sheltered and spoiled. Asch had been forced to kill for the man who kidnapped him.

And now the person who they had endured that for was here. Was _real_, and in their arms.

Even Jade had enough compassion not to interrupt, saccharine as it was.

Asch's eyes opened. "One of you keep an eye on the clock. Shift change is at midnight." Then his eyes closed again, returning to the communion necessity had drawn him out of.

"Yes sir!" Tear replied, but clearly hadn't been paying any attention at all, just given the automatic response. Jade decided to take a seat. Someone had to keep watch.


	3. Chapter 3

"_Luna, stay where you are."_

"_I need to fight, Asch, or I'm not going to get strong enough to be of any use."_

"_Luna, you would have had nightmares if I wasn't here about killing that soldier and Legretta. I don't want you to have nightmares. I don't need to kill these guards, and I _do_ need someone who can stand guard. You can pass for me, so no one will question you being here. If Jade or Tear were spotted and couldn't identify themselves we would have a problem." _

"_Alright." _

Asch pushed the door open quietly and whispered in. "Arietta? Fon Master Ion?"

"Wha?" Arietta looked very sleepy, nestled against a liger, but she'd insisted on keeping guard on Ion. He'd whispered so he wouldn't wake her up if she was asleep, the kind of consideration she expected from him.

"Arietta," Asch told her, coming into the room. "Look at you. You're exhausted. How are you supposed to guard Ion if you're this tired tomorrow? Get some rest. I'll take care of him for now so that you can do your duty the way you should tomorrow."

"Asch, I haven't seen him in so long, I don't want to…" She yawned. "I want to be with him while he's here."

"If you're half-asleep all the time he's here you won't be able to enjoy yourself, Arietta. Look, I'll talk Legretta into sending you to take him to Van tomorrow instead of escorting him herself as soon as she comes back if you _promise_ me you'll get enough rest that you can do a good job keeping him safe." On the way to have his health ruined yet again by breaking a Daathic seal.

Asch would be protecting Ion. From Arietta's ignorance.

Ion seemed to have woken up.

"Al'ight, Asch." Arietta yawned, dead tired enough to have given up on speaking clearly. "'Night," she said, muzzily reaching for her water glass.

"Sleep well, Arietta." He gave her a last smile. She'd never understood what Van was doing, but that only made her more dangerous: vicious and unreasonable. "Fon Master Ion? Come with me."

"Alright." The replica knew better to object or show any sign of rebellion. And even Asch was safer than Arietta. Arietta might find out he wasn't the original, and then the replica would pay the price. He followed Asch outside the door to the two waiting Oracle Knights.

"I believe you know these two, Fon Master?"

"Oh, I'm sure such an august personage wouldn't remember little old me," a familiar voice came from inside the helmet.

"Jade?" At least he kept his voice down, glancing back and forth from the false knight to the (traitorous) god-general.

"Follow me, and act as you usually do in these situations." Trying not to attract attention.

It wasn't long before they were challenged. "Captain Asch?"

"At ease. Major Legretta signaled for me to escort the Fon Master to her. I'll be back shortly. We may be being watched by the ones that escaped, and it's possible the Necromancer might be able to find out what's going on in this ship if he returns. Tell no one the Fon Master has been transferred off it, understood? If they know, there goes the trap Largo and I are laying. I'll sneak back in by myself in a few minutes."

"Understood, sir."

"_Alright, Luna, we're clear."_

"_Phew."_

"_You can follow in a bit. If you're questioned, say you're going to meet with Largo for a report."_

"_Good thing I know how to act like you." _

"_Are you nervous?"_

"_I'm not. I know how to act. It's just… I want to see you again. I'm having a hard time waiting patiently."_

"_Oh. Anticipation, not nervousness." Luna could tell Asch was smiling. "You know, most people go out of their way to avoid me."_

"_I'm not most people." _

"_Very true." _

"Luke?" Ion asked Asch questioningly.

"Not exactly." Asch smiled and Ion looked very confused. Not Luke, but Asch? Smiling like that? "He's still on the Tartarus. He'll be joining us shortly, and actually he _will_ be disguised as me."

"So you are related?" 'Related' clearly meant 'replicas.' "Are you a younger son? A lot of second sons join the Order."

"No, I'm his original."

Ion was lost.

Asch hesitated. Tear insisted on coming with them, Jade had a mission of his own to take care of, and Anise was a traitor… If he told Ion he would place Ion in quite a lot of danger. But, to leave him here, where Mohs and Van could get their hands on him? If he died Luna would be sad, and Asch had seen enough innocent young children with this face perish. "You're coming with us. Luna and I. Tear as well."

"Where?" And why?

"Someplace Luna and I will be safe from this world and this world from us. Just until this year is past and the Score thwarted. Then? Your original created you as a tool for Van to use to create a world of replicas. To cleanse Auldrant of the trash that forced him to read the Score, rubbed his face in his own death, day after day after day. I will destroy the Score. I will create a world where replicas are not just tools to be used and discarded. Where no one is doomed to die without any hope of reprieve. And I will do it by saving this world, not destroying it."

"Are you…" Serious? "Do you really think you can?"

Asch met Ion's eyes and focused. The young replica's eyes widened. "Do you doubt me?"

"No. You're…" Ion, replica or not, was a fon master. He could read the fonstones of the planet score: he could read what was written in Asch's eyes. "You're stronger than the Score. You have, you have _hope_. I believe in you." For the first time in his life he believed in something instead of simply being forced to accept it. "Lorelei." The Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei, Lorelei's voice on Auldrant genuflected to his god: the first time one had served Lorelei in truth instead of in name only.

But Asch shook his head. "A former vessel of his power only. And Luna sees you as a friend. Don't bow before him; he's had enough of that from the servant girls." He pulled Ion to his feet. "And you are a servant no longer." Ion had been a slave, really. "Actually, all three of us are making our bid for freedom today," he mused. "Your rendezvous with your guardian was St. Binah?" (And it was also where the god-generals were supposed to meet if anything went wrong.)

Ion nodded. "We'll head there," Asch promised him. "But she has her parents to worry about, so I don't think she can come with us. She might ask to, but it wouldn't be what's best for her." There was no way he would drag along a spy for Mohs who left hostages behind. He and Luna had no one but each other. Tear had a grandfather and brother who had let the Score turn them into monsters, one way and another.

Asch had Kimlasca, once. He'd thought they wanted him as king, that they needed him. Then he'd found out that he has just been a replaceable, disposable weapon to them. He had made promises to his country… but it had failed to hold up its side of the bargain.

They hadn't gotten too much farther before Luna caught up to them. "Hey, Ion." He waved as he came closer.

"Luke!"

"Luna, actually. Sorry for lying to you."

"I understand, Asch explained it."

"I know he did, but still. I need to start getting out of the habit of lying." Luna took Ion by one hand and Asch with another.

Asch was startled. No one had touched him so casually and fearlessly since he'd been kidnapped. Luke didn't give anyone this much liberty either, except Mother on occasion. But it was… each other. They touched in mind every second of every day, so… His hand tightened, gripping Luna back, although his face was stoic. "Just don't start singing."

"I won't," Luna promised. Although his heart sang, echoing into Asch's, the sound returning and returned.

* * *

"_Is it really a good idea to let Ion talk to Anise?" _Luna didn't want to ask that, but he had to. _"If he tells her the truth, Mohs and Van will know. If he doesn't, then we would be lying again."_

Since when was Ion part of 'we?' We had always meant the two of them. Still, yes, if they gave Ion a story to tell her it would be their lie, not Ion's. _"Well, he's not telling her anything important as of yet, right? Just that you, Jade, and Tear escaped with him." _

"_Are you okay up there? It can't be comfortable in such thick clothing."_ Not to mention the dark fabric. Asch's armor was meant to be used mostly at night and indoors. He wasn't roasting, but then he was used to being hot in this.

"_I've had much worse lookouts than the soil tree." _It made a very good lookout indeed. _"That's moving too fast to be anyone but Sync. Good." _There was someone else on the road (Sync was mostly sticking to the forests.) _"I do believe that's Guy." _

"_Guy?" _

"_Well, he is your manservant. Of course he would come looking for you." _

"_What am I going to do?"_

"_Luna."_

"…_Yes?"_

"_Lying is still an option. Deceit is a weapon like any other and our lives and Auldrant's are still in danger. Lying is bad. Killing is bad. But sometimes the alternatives are worse." _Feeling Luna's reluctant agreement, Asch sent a wave of reassurance and wished Luna was here. Sending a hug wasn't the same as holding him. It just wasn't. Once Sync was dealt with, they would. _"He'll come up here first, to see if anyone else is here. Keep the others in the inn, hmm?"_

"_Okay." _Luna did much better when he had something useful to focus on. Which explained why the last seven years had been so unpleasant for him…

"It took you long enough to get here!"

"Asch! What the hell happened? Where are Largo, Legretta and Ion, and what happened to Arietta?"

"Largo's dead. The necromancer managed to take him: Largo waited too long to decide to use that fon slot seal on him and we missed the revival window, or so we thought. Legretta and I decided to keep it concealed for morale's sake." The Order admit a god-general had been taken out by anyone, even the Necromancer? Never. "After that, the necromancer escaped by using Tear as a hostage, along with that dreck. Legretta decided to search the area for them herself, since I…"

"Couldn't resist the urge to attack him, could you?"

"Shut up. Arietta arrived with Ion, and eventually Legretta gave up searching and signaled for me to escort Ion to her so she could head to the Sephiroth. I got Ion away from Arietta by saying he would still be there in the morning, and instructed the troops to act as though Ion was still there so that they might be able to trap the three of them if they attempted a rescue. Then, I left to shadow Legretta in case they attacked her. Sync, when I see Van I am going to have a question for him: why the hell did he tell me that that piece of trash couldn't use fonic artes?"

"What?"

"I didn't recognize it in Largo, but Legretta and the two knights I sent with her? They were in the middle of the woods and the scavengers hadn't even got there! Like hell they had been dead too long for revival! I saw that replica kill a knight and also my second in command right in front of me before they escaped, and _someone_ must have tried to use a life bottle on them, but when I debriefed the troops I was one down and that moron wasn't there." Asch despised his lieutenants. "I thought Legretta had grabbed them to help with the pursuit, but no, they were nowhere to be seen. He didn't even use an arte on those two while I was there! He just stabbed them, and Legretta was practically still bleeding, and the life bottle wouldn't take! Either he knows an enhancement version of my arte or he's got a fucking magic practice sword!"

"You're kidding me."

"I wish. Where are Dist and Arietta?"

"I don't know about Dist, but Arietta's dead."

"What?"

"She died in her sleep. They think someone might have poisoned the glass of water she asked for around four AM. Her second in command decided to risk the ligers when I got there, and by that time it was too late to bring her back." Poison was normally useless, since it could easily be cured the instant the victim noticed something was wrong. However, if someone was poisoned with something quick-acting overnight, then it was possible for them to die and the revival window to pass without anyone noticing until it was too late.

"Legretta died around two. Are you telling me they escaped me _by heading back to the Tartarus_?" Asch punched the tree. "Damn it! Up all night on wild goose chases for nothing? That goddamn piece of trash…"

"Oh, like he has the brains for this. It has to be the necromancer."

"If I could have revived Largo the necromancer wouldn't have mattered. Three of us. Three. And Arietta? I promised her she…" Asch scowled and stopped talking about that. "I couldn't find them, so I came to the meeting place we agreed on."

"Just Arietta's bad enough, but half the god-generals in one operation? And right after Cantabile? What an epic-screw-up. You're the one_ Van_ is going to ask questions, you know."

So Cantabile was dead? "Do not push me, Sync; I am not in the mood. As though you could have done better."

"Well, I would have had a clear head, unlike some people who can't stand the idea of someone walking around with their face."

"Sync…" Asch's hand moved to his hilt.

Time to change the subject. "Do you have any idea where they are?"

"Besides not in St. Binah? No." Perhaps lying _was_ a bad habit. Their priorities had changed: it was time to act, not act innocent. He needed less realistic story and more killing Sync, Asch realized. "Who will wait here for Dist to arrive?"

"Not it!"

Asch rolled his eyes. "They boarded the Tartarus at Engave, according to the reports. It's the only other town in the area and there are shipments in and out of there constantly." He heaved an irritated sigh. "Someone has to stay here to brief Dist and Van wouldn't want me to go find that dreck unsupervised. You're also faster. So get going: we need Ion back."

"Sure." Asch had seniority and was technically Sync's superior, after all.

Asch smirked as he ran off.

"_You're going after him?" _

"_As soon as he gets into the woods. An agility enhancement arte will compensate for his quickness, and there won't be any witnesses there. Guy's about a mile out of town now, by the way." _Asch started casting.

"_Should I go after Sync instead of taking your place as lookout?" _

"_With the mood you're in?" _And Asch was off.

"_What do you mean, the mood I'm in?"_

"_I mean you're giddy and it's affecting your judgment. Now is not the time to celebrate, and you suddenly develop a guilt complex about lying to people. I'm… happy to see you too, Luna. But I want to keep seeing you, and that means keeping you alive. Now don't distract me, Sync's up ahead." _Sync had a protective talisman to keep him from falling apart: it was Asch's first target.

"What the… Asch?"

"No." Asch crushed it under his heel. "Guess again." It would be useful to confuse Sync, he decided. Legretta escaping had been a risk, but Sync was the most likely of the god-generals to be able to pull it off. He and Luna were both ambidextrous, but Luna had focused on fighting left-handed since Asch had told him that most swordsmen were used to fighting right-handed opponents (the fact that fewer people were left handed meant fewer teachers were used to dealing with it), and so the slight difference would give him a measurable advantage.

So Asch switched his sword to his left hand. "It looks like I'm not the only one with a replica imposter hiding in the god-generals. I didn't want to believe Tear and Jade, but why would Master Van keep something like this from me?" Mimicking Luna's tone was second nature even though he'd never done it himself. He'd helped Luna perfect this tone, after all. "And Ion… You know what it does to him, you need that talisman, and you still wanted to use him like that?" Luna's hurt, Luna's incomprehension of that which was bad from so long ago. That innocence the false innocent seemingly should still possess.

"So you're the replica. You seriously think you can take me on one-on-one? I'm one of Van's six god-generals and you're a…"

"Shut up!" Asch attacked without any finesse.

"The hell? You _are_ faster than me!"

"If I learned how to do fonic artes I would have been able to progress on my own well enough that Master Van wouldn't have come to see me as often, he said." 'Luke' smiled, darting in for another set of slashes. "I guess it's coming in handy." He started to cast. "Let the six fonons of the physical realm combine at my command: be conducted in the celestial harmonies and submit to the flow of time! Holy Radiance!" He looked up at Sync and grinned. "Tear told me about this second fonic hymn thing that she'll be able to use soon and Master Van can use. This is sort of like that. Among a lot of other things!" He dashed forward on the last word. Luke wasn't actually strong enough to use this arte yet, but Asch had never shown anyone it because it had been born from his understanding of Lorelei and called on Lorelei's true nature and power. Not the sort of thing that would have escaped Van's notice.

And an arte that nullified damage, among other things, would explain how Luke had taken out such powerful opponents despite such low HP.

"My my, break it up you two." Dist? Aargh, what timing!

"_He came out of nowhere!"_

"_He can go up high enough even people with enhanced fonic sight can't make him out. Not your fault, Luna."_

"Dist, this isn't Asch!"

"I gathered. My chair is far superior to any _tree._ I can see Asch standing there above St. Binah, and here I find you fighting another Asch. I think it's safe to say this isn't the real one, unless Asch has lost his patience with you yet again, Sync." Dist was out of range of any arte it would be realistic for Luke to have.

"So that's where he is… Are you the one with the runny nose?" Asch didn't stop fighting for the sake of banter.

"Oh, that dratted Jade!" Dist pounded his armrests.

"I can't even scratch him and Asch said he's got an arte that can prevent revival! Get me out of here!"

"Oh, you're asking me for help? Say please."

"Why you…" Another few frenzied seconds forced Sync to abandon his pride. "Please!"

"Please who?"

"Dist the Rose! Now are you a god-general or not?"

"Why certainly." Dist deployed one of his fontech machines. It was too slow to be a real danger, so Asch mostly ended up chasing Sync around it. Eventually Sync took a leap from the top of it and Dist was able to swoop in and grab him.

This was one of those many times that Asch deeply, deeply regretted learning sword artes from Van instead of the royal family's traditional archery like Natalia. His father might have been a swordsman, yes, but…

"_They're heading over to me." _

"_Play along. Sync's severely weakened, and Dist is about to lose his fontech doll. Five gald says they want to retreat and ask you to heal Sync." _

"_I'm not taking that bet."_


	4. Chapter 4

_Shortish chapter, but it's how the scenes were. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own ToA._

* * *

When they reached 'Asch's' vantage point he greeted them with his usual amount of politeness. "Dist, it's about time you got here! Sync, did you fill him in?"

"We saw it for ourselves. You weren't kidding when you said your replica was dangerous. He's got a damage-nullifying, all stat-boosting, and I don't know what else enhancement arte! You're not the only one who has questions for Van! How did a seven year old manage to hide something like that from him and get away with it?" Sync fumed. "I'm in the red. Heal me, and then we're heading right to Kaitzur to talk to Van."

"He's here?"

"Don't even think about it! We need to report, Asch, and figure out what to do! He knows, Asch! Do you want everything you went through to have been for nothing?"

"No." Luna scowled. "Oh radiant power, Bless!"

And Sync's whole body heaved, twitched, and he screamed before going limp.

That healing arte surrounded the body with seventh fonons it could use. Normally harmless even to Sync (Asch had cast it on him before a few times, so there was no way he would recognize it as the problem), without his talisman and with his body's integrity severely weakened by Asch's seventh-fonon coated sword, now it was tempting the fonons that made up Sync's body to leave that unhappy shell and return to Lorelei's embrace.

"The hell! Don't tell me that dreck can make it so healing artes don't work either!"

"Get rid of it," Sync pleaded.

"I can't! Damn it, damn it, damn it, I'm going to kill that…" Luna tried a panacea bottle, then took out an apple gel and hesitated. "If this works the way I think it does this would just make it worse."

"You're… right… I'll…" Sync refused it: good, since the influx of seventh fonons into his body would have helped reduce the amount he would be weakened (he would be pulled into his body as well as out of it). "Tough it out… I can't die here, I won't die here…" But he was going to, and Luna didn't want to watch.

But Asch had said good night to Arietta, and had agreed to bring Ion with them for her sake, among other reasons.

They trusted them. They came to them, Asch, for help.

But then, Luke had trusted his Master Van.

"_It's not right."_

"_But it's necessary." _

Luna used the apple gel on him. "He was going to die if I didn't use it," he explained to Dist. "But he still may. I don't get it. The cloud should be healing him and vanishing, but it's just growing."

"The cloud?"

"Pulling… me apart…" Sync could talk again. "I'm at full HP, I have been since you cast it, so why did an apple gel help?"

"We're in St. Binah, they make them here. We could commandeer the whole town's supply," Luna reminded them.

"No… It won't be enough… I'm still fading." Shaking his head, Sync pushed himself off Dist's chair. "I can't believe… It's down to Dist, who only cares about his stupid childhood, and you, Asch… I don't want to die… But Ion was born to die and so I was made to. Van saved me, just like you, Asch… Destroy the Score! Promise me, and make Van promise!"

"I promise." Yes, he could promise he would destroy the Score. That wouldn't be a lie.

Sync looked up at the sky, rolling onto his back on the upper observation platform that was off-limits to the general public (technically they shouldn't have been there, since they weren't Malkuth military). "Damn you, Lorelei… You'll die! Die and see how it feels!" His voice broke.

"We need to get out of here," Dist warned Asch. "Your replica's abilities are both powerful and unknown. He could pose a significant threat, in fact he already has."

"I'm staying here. You get going."

"What?"

"You heard me! Someone has to report to Van." Luna knelt by Sync's side and used another apple gel.

"What he said," Sync gasped out, although when Luna touched his arm it was only half-solid, between solid and not in the same way translucent was between transparent and opaque.

"Your chair can fly, Dist! You should be able to avoid him even if Sync couldn't."

"Why not come with me?"

"I'm not riding in your lap all the way to Kaitzur!" Luna got a hold of himself. "And I'm the only one with a real chance of surviving long enough to figure out what his capabilities are. He's my replica, so he should be weaker than me, right?"

"Ha." Sync wasn't amused.

"Go, Dist! Or do you want to die?"

"You have a point there. See you in Kaitzur, Asch. Or not." Dist took off.

"Cockroach," Sync complained.

"You're telling me."

"Still, I can't believe you're staying with me. You hate replicas." Sync wasn't talking with his mouth anymore, so Luna could hear him clearly.

"No, Sync, I don't." Sync looked puzzled. "I am one. I'm sorry, Sync."

"You!" Sync sprang up and tried to claw at him, but he passed right through him like the ghost he would be in a minute.

"Lorelei isn't evil, Sync. He's crying for you right now, and for the entire world." Luna knew it in his bones. "Please, don't hate him. In the fon belt no one will care that you were a replica. Your fonons know you'll be happier there, that's why they want to go home to it. So does Lorelei. I'm sorry, Sync. Rest in peace."

Luna wished there was at least a body to bury.

"_Look down. Guy's at the town gate. You'll have to go down and make them let him in if you want to talk to him now." _

"_I don't know what to tell him."_

"_Well, it's not as though it's urgent." _Asch paused. _"Do you want me to?" _

"…_I was going to say that it was my responsibility, but he was your friend too, and you haven't seen him in years. Do _you_ want to talk to him?" _

Asch realized that, _"You're right. I'm sorry, I didn't understand what I was asking you to do. I've been dreaming of telling the god-generals, my father, and King Ingobert, or not, but Guy, Natalia, Mother? It's…"_

"_You told Ion for me. So… I'll tell Mother for you. If you handle Guy, I'll handle Natalia." _

Natalia was the one Asch had truly been dreading.

Asch had multiple copies of his uniform, but Luna had come out here with only the clothes on his back, so both of them could pose as Asch at once but right now Asch could only pose as Luna posing as Asch.

"_No. You're going to be you, Asch. I don't… The god-generals are one thing, but I don't want to lie to the people we care about anymore. I think Jade might be right, that it's not right to only really… see each other as people worthy of the truth. It was necessary, but it's a bad habit." _

"_I suppose," _Asch admitted grudgingly_. "You go back down, make it look like you're planning to brief the troops. Dist can fly up out of sight of the ground, remember. I doubt he stuck around, but if you keep acting like me he should assume that it's Luna who's going to talk to his manservant." _

"_Of course." _

"_Sorry, old habits from dealing with my subordinates."_

"_No, it's good to check and make sure we're on the same page. You talk to Guy, and I'll think about what to do since we had to let Dist escape." _Dist might be weak, but there was nothing they could do about that chair giving him the ability to escape. Spinning that story for Sync had come in handy after all. When Asch didn't immediately respond and Luna saw that Asch could see Guy but wasn't revealing himself, he nudged him. _"You aren't getting cold feet, are you?"_

"_I…" _It was Guy, or Natalia, or Mother. All of the alternative conversations were even more potentially devastating, even harder to contemplate.

"_Never mind. I'll do it."_

"_What?" _

"_I'll talk to Guy. And Natalia, and Mother. You've done so much for me that it's only fair." _

"_It's not fair to ask you to…"_

"_You're not asking, I am. Please let me do this for you, Asch." _Luna's strength sturdied him.

"_It's too risky for you to sneak out of town right now."_

"_So?" _

"_Are you suggesting…" _

"_Sound fun?"_

"_We never could get switching back perfected, but if we're so close together… You're right, we should test this." _

"_Lean against something, okay?" _

Asch nodded. _"Let's try switching back right away."_

"_Of course. If it worked when you were outside of Baticul, it should work this close."_ That had been scary. Luna having to make his way out of Daath by himself… at least he'd known how to walk and so on once he was in a body capable of it, and Asch had talked him through it while playing Luna's idiot child role to the hilt, but Luna had been so scared there, and… Asch going to Luna's body was like water flowing downhill. He could only make the transfer back to his own if there wasn't a long distance between them. They'd switched back and forth several times once Asch was in range and Van was working on persuading him to come back home since they were all fooled.

He'd actually gotten to see Luna, he'd dared. He hadn't told Luna until years later. Luna would have wanted to know why Asch hadn't told him he was there, that close, so Luna could see him, but Luna couldn't have acted calmly. He would have tried to stumble over to Asch and they would have found him and Luna would have been killed.

Still, the missed opportunity had been the cause of the only occasion… They hadn't argued, but Luna had been so _hurt_. He'd wanted to see Asch so badly all this time… But now they were together. _"I'm ready," _he told Luna.

"_Okay, here goes."_ They had to each push on each other for leverage, Luna being flung into Asch's body with the force of Asch being drawn into Luna's. _"And back…" _That was tougher. Asch had to push himself away from the body and Luna had to pull. Only this time it was more like beckon. _"Well, that was easy." _After Asch was securely in his body Luna slid back into his own (Asch was the harder of the two to move by far. _"Okay, for real this time?"_

"_Let's go." _And Asch found himself in the inn. _"Do you want me to tell the others we can switch?"_

"_Um… It wouldn't be a lie to just let them think we can't?" _This was something new, and fun. An aspect of their bond. Luna didn't want to share until they had played with their (relatively) new toy for a bit. They hadn't done this since the aftermath of that frightening first time.

"_You're such a child sometimes." _

Luna would have stuck out his tongue, and the feeling was the same, but Guy had just spotted him.


	5. Chapter 5

"Guy!"

"Luke! Man, you had me worried!" Guy looked him over. "What are you doing in Maestro robes, Luke? I mean, there are Oracle Knights crawling all over the place, and impersonating a Maestro? Oh, right, you wouldn't know how much trouble that would get you in, huh. Never mind, Lady Suzanne had me bring you some clean clothes."

Those might come in handy. "Guy, it's kind of a long story." Luke gestured towards the woods. "Let's get out of sight of the road first, okay?"

"Uh, sure." Since when did Luke know about stuff like that? "So, what happened? Did Van's sister try anything?"

"Tear? Uh, no. She promised to help get me home since it was her fault I ended up all the way out here. She's been really great, she's not a bad guy, Guy." Where to begin?

"I guess, she is his sister. Well, Van's waiting at Kaitzur. I found out you'd gotten captured in Engave, and then I followed the landship south, but you weren't on it so I decided to check out St. Binah since you hadn't kept going south. Man, Luke, you sure led me on a wild goose chase. What happened? I got five different stories from five different guys, and they're still not making any sense."

"That's what I meant by long story. Or, actually, even longer." Maybe Luna was regretting doing this for Asch just a little, not that he would let Asch know that. "I don't really know where to start… Maybe in Engave, since that's the last place you could have heard anything…" that wasn't a lie, if Guy had been talking to Oracle Knights. "Jade figured out that Tear and I were the people who had gotten here with hyperresonance, and since he was going to Baticul with Fon Master Ion and a message of peace from Emperor Peony he wanted my help."

"So Malkuth kidnapped Fon Master Ion?"

"He wasn't kidnapped: he ran away with his guardian, Anise." Where had he been? "So, we were going along and we got attacked by monsters led by Arietta the Wild and a few other god-generals. They tried to kidnap Fon Master Ion when he didn't want to return to Daath."

"You're kidding me. _Van's_ guys tried to kidnap the Fon Master?"

"Well, one of them decided to help us, and that was lucky since Largo managed to put a fon slot seal on Jade, and Tear knows a lot but she doesn't have much experience."

"Wait, wait, you were fighting _god-generals_?" Guy grabbed Luke, half shock and half making sure Luke was solid instead of a ghost.

"Don't worry Guy, I'm fine."

"Did they hurt you? Van's got discipline issues, but he'll have their heads for this!" Or Guy would, one or the other.

"I'm fine, Guy. It's hard enough to tell you this without all the interruptions."

"Sure, but, Luke, are you sure you're okay? You're acting… I mean, I guess being out in the real world is a big difference, but you're acting…"

"I am acting like myself, Guy. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

Seeing something in Luna's eyes, Guy backed off. "Alright, Luke, I'm listening."

"Remember the kidnapping seven years ago?"

"Of course. Wait, do you mean coming here brought your memories back?" Guy started to grin. They'd been hoping for that for years!

"No, Guy, or… I remembered all along."

"Wha-"

"Please don't interrupt!" Luna pleaded. "It's hard to tell you this! I'm not Luke, I haven't been Luke for seven years. Van was the one who kidnapped Luke, and he made a replica to replace him. That's me, that's been me all along." Seeing Guy's face he just kept taking, not wanting Guy to. "These are his robes, Guy. Van wanted him to join him, made him be Asch the Bloody. He, he could have come back home, but if he had Father and Uncle would have had me killed! So… And I really was that helpless when I was brought to the manor, Guy, I couldn't have taken care of myself and Luke couldn't have taken care of me with Van and Kimlasca both after us, so…So I had to pretend I didn't know I wasn't Luke, to Van and all of you, and Asch had to pretend he hated me for taking his place, because otherwise… You know what happened to Hod?"

Clearly Guy did. "Van was destined to do it, so they put him in a machine and forced his power out of control, and the Score said that Luke was going to destroy Akzeriuth the same way and die doing it. So if Luke had gone home I would have died, and then he and an entire city full of innocent people would have died. Van made me to die in Luke's place, and… Father and Uncle know too. About the Score, not me being a replica. Akzeriuth's destruction will start a war that Kimlasca will win, and that's why I've been kept locked up, and…" Luna closed his eyes, shaking his head. "It's supposed to happen this year, Guy! We think we can stop it, but I can't go back to Baticul. I can't, Guy!"

He turned around, unable to face him. Guy stepped closer, put a hand on his shoulder. "Luke…"

"My name is Luna. I'm sorry."

"I don't… What are you saying? Van destroyed Hod?"

"It wasn't his fault, Guy. But he did do the rest of the stuff I said on his own."

"I… So he's been trying to stop Hod from happening again?"

"No. He wants Akzeriuth to happen, he just made me to go there and die instead of Asch. He thinks that replicas are weaker and that I'll fall apart if I use that power, so he wants Asch, my original, the one whose best friend you were before he was kidnapped, to live and work for him. I'm sorry, Guy. Asch wanted me to pretend to be him and be your friend so that Natalia and Mother and you wouldn't be sad, but I didn't… I lied to you this whole time. I'm sorry." Luna's shoulders hunched in.

"He… _wants_ another Hod and he wanted you to die instead of Duke Fabre's real son?"

That didn't seem like the right sort of response. "Guy?" Luna half turned around to get a look at Guy's face.

"This… doesn't make any sense."

"We wish it weren't happening either, and we're living it." Luna managed an excuse for a smile. "Guy, what's wrong? Now you're the one who's acting strange."

"Sorry." Guy managed to laugh it off, but there was the same strain there, just hidden just as well as Luna usually hid his, and Luna realized that his best friend was as practiced a deceiver as he was. "I was born on Hod, so it's kind of a touchy subject."

"_Our father invaded and sacked Hod before the final destruction, remember." _Asch didn't want to go on the alert, but if it was anyone but Guy he would have. _"Be careful, Luna." _

"_I will." _"Asch found out that Malkuth was doing fomicry research on Hod, since the Score foretold its destruction and the people were going to die anyway. Then the war started, and they were afraid people would find out about what they did to all those people. So they decided to use Van to destroy it, since 'the one who would seize glory' was going to destroy it anyway… They said it was fine to kill those people because Van would, and then they made Van so they could get away with killing those people. Even his own Grandfather knew that would happen to Van's family if they stayed there, and… Teodoro even tried to make him stop looking for survivors, since they were supposed to be doomed anyway. So Van hates the Score. The rest of the god-generals do too, or did. But they hated the world that follows the Score and uses it as an excuse for horrible things more, I think."

"That's… that's what happened?"

Luna nodded. "They used a fon machine that used him to generate an imperfect hyperresonance. But Luke was born with the ability to create a perfect one, and the Score said that he would die as a weapon of Kimlasca, taking Akzeriuth with him, this year. N. D. 2018. Luke, the Light of the Sacred Flame, inherited the power of Lorelei. So… Asch can't read the Score for very long without passing out. It hurts, it hurts horribly, and I haven't been near the Score at all, ever, but we've been trying to find a way to save everyone for seven years now.

"The power of Lorelei that Luke was born with is the same as the power of Lorelei that Yulia used to make the Score. So we should be able to oppose the Score. That was why Van wanted Asch, to create a different future. But… He thinks the only way to do that is to kill Lorelei, and that means destroying and recreating the entire world. He wants to use the replica data from the people of Hod to at least bring back the place that he destroyed if not the same people, and I think that might have been the reason he ended up deciding to replace everyone with replicas. It's not necessary, but he thinks everyone… I think he thinks it's necessary to destroy the Score, but he wants vengeance."

"That's… that's insane." Guy had to brace himself against a tree.

"I think he might be. Something like that would drive anyone insane."

"This… Can't be true. I mean… How could you admire him so much if he made you to die?"

"Replicas are created intelligent, but it takes a long time to learn to walk, and talk… It's as hard to learn to walk as to learn to fight, Guy. By the time I managed to get my mouth to talk I'd been talking with Asch about this… We had to keep it a secret, Guy. If we'd told our father or the king they would have tried to get the score back on track for Akzeriuth, and if Van knew Asch wasn't loyal Asch wouldn't have been able to find out what we needed to know to try and stop it from happening. It… Asch missed you so much, Guy. He wanted me to be Luke for you, and Natalia, and Mother, so that you wouldn't be sad anymore. He wanted to come home, and he just couldn't, or else so many people would have died. So… I pretended for him. Someone in Luke's position would have loved who Van pretended to be, like Luke did, and Van is a good person, he's just… broken inside. We can't hate him, although Asch blames that on Lorelei because he's a soldier and he needs to be able to see Van as an enemy."

"What does Lorelei have to do with this? I mean, obviously he has to do with everything because of the Score," Guy attempted a joke, "but if Van's trying to kill him why would Lorelei force you to like him?"

"That's because of what took so long to figure out, and Van doesn't understand it either. Lorelei's power is Lorelei, because Lorelei is the seventh fonon. Yulia and Lorelei had Luke be born because they made the Score to save this world and the Score, the Score is what people will choose to do_ given_ the Score so that it didn't take away their free will, so following it would lead to inevitable destruction. So Luke was born to destroy the Score, and Yulia's descendants were supposed to find him and… but they didn't disregard the Score, even though it meant that Van would be used like that and Yulia and Lorelei's last hope would die. They could have used Luke's power, his_ existence_ as the wedge that would have let them prevent Hod."

Guy inhaled sharply but didn't say anything. Luna kept going, "The Grand Fonic Hymn, Tear used a piece of it to put the guards to sleep, is Yulia's message to her children and children's children, so they would know what to do. The song contains her will. But I guess… over two thousand years, they stopped listening. Tear doesn't understand the meaning of the third and fifth fonic hymns at all, she said, and she doesn't even know the seventh. Those are the important ones, for this." Luna picked a bit of leaf out of Asch's hair idly, for something else to focus on. "Van knows the whole thing, though. Asch has heard him sing every single verse, although never together and not that often. He only sang the third and fifth when Asch asked for a demonstration."

"What did Yulia want?" Guy realized that he'd never thought about that. About why the Score. Yulia had done it to bring about prosperity, but why would someone who wanted peace and prosperity allow Hod? Yes, the many had benefited from the few's deaths, but Yulia's own descendants? He'd thought, Van had thought, that they'd only survived because of Yulia's selfishness.

"The world was dying because people were using the seventh fonon to take away free will. Millions died and were turned into miasma. So… she bound Lorelei so that no one else could do it instead, and had him make a future in which mankind had free will, even if they couldn't control the outcomes of the actions they freely chose, a prophecy that no one could break in order to control the world. The Score predicts, but it doesn't take away people's right to make choices about those predictions, unlike the futures the others in the war wanted. But just like back then, people want to control the future. So they use the Score to make others do what they want them to by holding back information, by… If the Score took away free will they wouldn't need the Oracle Knights. Van's right, humanity is doing this to itself and bears blame, but…"

Luna looked up at the fon belt, where it was visible through the leaves. "The first hymn is peaceful sleep. The score of the first fonstone brought peace, the end of the war. The second brought protection from the miasma. The third brought understanding of the Score, the holy song, but instead of understanding that strengthened the world it was an understanding used to control it. The fourth, was the golden age, the one they think the score will bring again, when the world was revitalized, healed of the damage done by the war. The fifth? Judgement. Understanding that the Score had gone wrong. But instead that hymn was used to strike down enemies of the Score. They thought it was the fault of people who didn't follow the Score that things were going wrong instead of the fault of those who did."

"We're near the end of the sixth fonstone, aren't we?"

"End of the sixth, beginning of the seventh. The sixth they think they understand. Grand Cross. The great alliance, the great sacrifice. It's the Score that needs to be sacrificed, though. Not the world. And not his own grandson… I don't understand Teodoro. I don't understand Father, and Uncle, and…" Luna had to cover his eyes. He didn't cry. He didn't, even though he knew such horrible things. Neither could Asch. It wasn't safe, they weren't supposed to know, they couldn't show this to anyone but each other. "Yulia and Lorelei… they wanted Luke, us to _help him_, Guy. Reading the Score… They _hoped _but they knew what people were like, and they… There are terrible things in the Score, terrible memories, and Lorelei _is _everyone's memories. All the pain that people have to endure he along endures with them. How can people read the Score and not hear Lorelei screaming? How can they think that… How could anyone want this?"

Guy held him now, as he hadn't in years, as no one but their Mother and each other had held them in years. "Shh, Luke."

Luna didn't correct him, not right now. "We're going to have to fight him, Guy, and it's not his fault that he's broken. He… he's been horrible to us, and he's also been kind, and it's so hard to tell what's real when both are. He's… Asch and I can talk to each other, in our minds, they synchronized our fon slots, and when I woke up after that Van was… How I learned that evil existed and what it was. He hurt me so that I would be found traumatized and you would believe that was how Luke lost his memory. But Luke loved him, and… If we can't trust Van, then who can we trust? Except each other, of course, but… I told Tear and Jade the truth just a few days ago, and it was the first time I ever have. It made me realize some things that I don't like."

Luna gulped. "I don't want to lie anymore, Van lies all the time, even to himself, and that's not a good way to be, but the Score still exists and we can't focus on fighting it because the person who was supposed to help us, that Yulia and Lorelei hoped we could save, is our greatest enemy!"

"Luke." Guy's sympathy, understanding, and forgiveness helped so very much. "I'm sorry."

"Luna. Luke was both of us, although I think I was asleep. I'm the power of Lorelei that he inherited. Lorelei's power is the seventh fonon is Lorelei, and I have Lorelei's exact fonon frequency. So does Asch, but he's a normal seventh fonist, he contains the first through seventh fonons. I'm a pure cluster of the seventh fonon with a mind. I'm, I'm me, but if I'm Lorelei too then, then this is all my fault!" He threw his arms around Guy and held tight as he said that, so afraid of rejection.

"Luna, you're… You're a good guy. Kid, I guess, if you were created seven years ago."

"_Luna, you know that…"_

"_I know you don't blame me, but you're you, Asch. I would never hate you and you would never hate me. You've forgiven me for so much, but I…"_

"_You were worried that other people would hate you? Only if they were idiots, and if some idiot hurt your feelings like that then I would use them as a practice dummy." _

"But I've been lying to everyone all this time. It was necessary, and Asch agrees, it was mostly his idea, but we were both afraid you would reject us. You were his best friend too, and he missed you."

"And Natalia's missed him."

"Natalia…"

"She'll be angry you didn't tell her, but you had a good reason. A lot of good reasons. She won't stay angry."

"I don't know if Asch still loves her. He's changed, Guy. I was with him for it. He's happy that Natalia kept her promise to help the people of Kimlasca, but marrying her means being king and he would never be king. Being a good king one day meant everything to him once, but then he found out that the people who told him how important helping Kimlasca was, and his duty, and how he would do a good job were doing all of that, telling him all those things, to make him into a weapon, make him die for Kimlasca. He never would have been king, and they knew it. It was all lies. And it was family that did that to him. He doesn't want to be king, not when being king means doing things like that. He doesn't want to go home. He says that he does, but he wasn't able to be the one to tell you all this. I don't think he can face Natalia, andI don't want to substitute for him with her anymore."

"_Luna?"_

"_I think Jade was right. It's important to have someone to talk to who isn't us. I want to help you with this, but I don't know how and you don't know either. Guy knows Natalia, so maybe he can help." _Of course he wasn't replacing Asch. No one could replace Asch. This was for Asch, and Asch knew that.

"Man. All this time and I had no idea what you were going through."

"I'm sorry I was so cranky all the time. There was so much at stake, and I couldn't do anything to really help, and I had to lie, and I couldn't leave the manor, and Van made Asch do things, and Natalia was so unhappy that I wasn't Asch so I couldn't even do the one thing I was doing for him right, and I wanted to see Asch just once and I couldn't until now. He's had no one he could trust to just hold him for so long, and talking to each other just wasn't enough."

"At least I had Pere." Guy rubbed his back. "It's going to be okay, Luna. Man, that's going to take some getting used to. I'm glad you trusted me with all this."

"Thank you for forgiving me for lying to you. You're the first person I've really told. Asch helped me tell Tear and Jade, and Asch told Ion for me. Tear and Jade are kind of overwhelmed by all of it, and Jade doesn't get overwhelmed by anything so that's not exactly reassuring, and Ion's nice and he knows I want him to just be my friend but he's the Fon Master."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"He's the Fon Master and I'm Lorelei, or an avatar of Lorelei. He's sure of it. And he's a replica, so he's especially sensitive. It's… he treats me like a normal person, but he can't ignore the fact that I'm not. Even before he knew he knew I was important, and he's glad I am what I am, because that means there's hope the world can change, but I'm used to being the brat and getting fake respect, not real respect."

"Fon Master Ion's a replica too?"

"Yes, the original died two years ago. Sync was another one of his replicas."

"Sync the Tempest was? Past tense?"

"Jade fought Largo and Asch finished him off instead of reviving him, we all fought Legretta, Arietta's dead too, and Asch and I just took out Sync. Cantabile's already dead before this started, Sync let it slip out, and Dist went to report to Van, we couldn't keep him from flying off so we didn't bother. Dist still thinks Asch is loyal."

"Cantabile?" Guy frowned, looking a bit guilty.

"_Yes, he has a secret of his own."_

"_Let's see if he'll tell us on his own."_

"The actual sixth god-general. Asch was the head of special operations. Or still is, since they don't know he's a traitor."

"You pulled all this off and they don't know he's on your side?"

"Sync and Dist didn't. Van might figure it out, but probably not. Asch was head of special operations, and we've been fooling everyone for seven years now. So we've had a lot of practice. It's hard to tell the truth. I find myself sort of automatically composing lies a lot, because it's always been hide the truth or everyone will die."

"_The patrol should reach that area in another two minutes, I'm having them do a through sweep."_

"_Got it, Asch." _"Like, Dist thinks that Asch is going to rouse the troops in St. Binah to find me, then fight me, and if he can't kill me then retreat and tell Van how powerful I am. So that's what we're going to do. He just warned me that search parties are heading out. Tear, Jade, Anise, and Ion are disguised as one of them: they'll meet up with us around the time Asch sees that I'm here from the top of the soil tree and comes to fight me. I'll capture him, and then we run away towards Grand Chokmah."

"Why Grand Chokmah?"

"Mohs and Kimlasca are trying to start a war. Asch brought the evidence with him, so we're going to make sure Jade gets it to Emperor Peony. If I use an arte to interrogate Asch, or say I do, that can explain how I know a lot of stuff I really shouldn't, and if Asch escapes or is rescued Van will be_ really_ sure that he's mad at me." Luna grinned. "And Asch gets to travel with us. He's had to keep everyone thinking he doesn't know where we are, so even though we were both in St. Binah he couldn't come to the inn and we couldn't be seen anywhere near each other."

"What do you want me to do?"

Thinking about that aspect killed Luna's mood. "I'm going to have to kill some Oracle Knights, but I don't want it to go to waste. Can you guard me while I'm casting?"

"You can use fonic artes?"

"Uh huh." Actually, since he was in Asch's body now he could use all of Asch's artes. Fighting Legretta and every monster in sight had helped, but he still couldn't use a lot of the best artes by himself.

Asch's miasma curse could only be cast on the willing, the severely wounded, or those a lot weaker than he was. Seventh fonists had to be a combination of all three. The miasma wasn't exactly a big problem, but it had been one when the Score was made and the more fonons there were that weren't controlled by the Score or contaminated by the miasma the better. "Try to get them in the red and then move on to another one. This arte keeps life bottles from working but it has to be cast on the living. It also does something else that's important, but it's complicated and they will probably be here soon, so we should keep quiet."

"If you say so."

Luna started casting, then thought better of it. He should wait on the Holy Radiance arte until he had an audience. They would be letting some of the Oracle Knights go, so he had to keep that in mind.

If Van saw Luna as the serious threat, and thought Asch both hated Luna and knew that he needed to force Luna to Akzeriuth in order to live, then he would hopefully be too shocked and busy trying to understand how the helpless little rappig he'd been raising for the slaughter had turned into a Behemoth to question Asch's loyalties. "Oh, remember to call me Luke."

"_That's_ not going to be a problem." They had kept their voices down, and could soon hear Oracle Knights attempting to be quiet. You ready, Guy's raised eyebrow asked Luke.

Yes, Luke's nod answered, and they sprang out at them.

Frankly, the hardest part of the battle was remembering to stick to the techniques Luke should know. Master Van had taught Asch a lot of moves that he'd been promising to teach Luke for a long time, ones that could be used at any level. Luna knew not to use them in his own body, but Asch's had been trained to recognize opportunities for things like lightning blade and take advantage of them.

Sync's speed meant a lot of those artes weren't that good against him, especially not when he was dodging like hell, so it had been easy for Asch to avoid using them even though it was his personal memory as well as his body's that said to use them. Luckily being trained by the same teacher gave them very similar styles.

These guys were relatively weak so he was able to focus mostly on casting. Oh, sure, they had plenty of HP compared to Guy, but Guy was_ fast_. Heal him occasionally and he was well able to keep them pinned down away from Luke. "Power of those abandoned by fate, heed my call: Vengeance!" No wonder Legretta had mistaken it for an enhancement arte. It was seventh fonon, right?

Yet it went against all the fonon stood for.

But if these people were going to die, at least it wouldn't be meaningless.

"_They're almost to your position. They started heading for you before the alarm went out, actually. I think Ion was right about being able to find you."_

"_That's interesting." _"Guy, the others are on the way, they'll be dressed as Oracle Knights at first!"

"Actually, we removed the uniforms almost as soon as we were outside the city walls. Those makeshift stilts our vertically challenged allies had to use were apparently dreadfully uncomfortable."

"Stuff it, Colonel!"

"Ion, stay out of the fight. Anise, keep him safe. Tear, get over here and help me heal. Jade, get them into the red but don't finish them off until I've cast vengeance on them."

"Alright."

"Gotcha!"

"Understood."

"Oh, very well."


	6. Chapter 6

As Luke cast Asch kept a tally. Every kill was one less of Van's fanatics and one piece more of the miasma purified. Still, Luke hated killing and Asch had to get over there before anyone wondered what was taking him so long to notice the fight. Luke was a ways away, in under deep tree cover. The nearby search parties would hear the noise and run towards it, but Asch wouldn't see a thing until he noticed that the parties weren't returning. He also had his new second-in-command up here. "Send out the next wave. If they managed to avoid the first group hopefully this one will flush them out as the first wave starts returning. I want them pinned down, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"A pity everything's too green to burn." The man beside him gasped. Asch turned and gave him a look.

"Sir, in grasslands like this the fire could go all the way to Engave, not to mention there are medicinal plants that only grow near here. And the Emperor…"

"Within a few months the Emperor will have bigger problems. The Score decrees Malkuth's defeat. It would be a pious action to help matters along." Not that anyone here was exactly pious. "And Van has replica data for those herbs, never fear."

"Uh… Yes, sir."

"If all goes according to plan no one will need Engave's next harvest. Or have you forgotten?" Asch scowled at the man. "Remember what we are fighting for, and do not forget the sacrifices that will have to be made for it." He scanned the horizon again. "We cannot afford a mere replica causing such a disruption. Not so close to the day we have all been waiting for. If we have to burn St. Binah to the ground to preserve Eldrant's future, if we have to burn the entire Rugnica Plains, then we will. Understood?"

"Understood, sir." The knight saluted, resolve sadly unshaken.

"Good. Then hurry up and send out the fourth wave." Asch returned to scanning the horizon. The fun should begin when the first groups he'd sent into that forest should have reappeared. Then he heard the call of one of the monsters Arietta had convinced to serve Van as transportation. Well, didn't that throw a wrench into the works. "Van?" He yelled upwards.

"I, the marvelous Dist the Rose, found him on his way here."

Easily dismounting, Van was as commanding as ever. "Gailardia alerted me to the fate of Arietta and the Tartarus before heading north, and I took off as soon as I could find an excuse to leave behind the official Kimlascan escort. Dist gave me a brief summary of the rest."

"Gailardia? I thought Legretta's second in command was Vallard."

"Your former manservant. Guy is his nickname. I was acquainted with him in my childhood on Hod. He was sent out, ordered to return with the replica or not at all."

"If we end up having to kill the thing then perhaps we could persuade him to take me in its place, at least until you can produce a replacement for my replacement."

"Hopefully we won't have to go that far. What fonic artes does he have?"

"Sync mentioned a damage nullifier that also enhanced 'a lot of stats,' or something along those lines: he didn't give specifics. Also, he appears to have some sort of arte that makes healing artes fatal. It might be that replicas are especially vulnerable, but I commandeered a large supply of gels before sending out the troops. Gels appeared to have a beneficial effect on Sync. Thinking about it, it may be that the arte I cast only _appeared_ to have refilled his HP to full. It might be that arte that prevents revival as well."

"An arte that causes the seventh fonon to kill instead of heal?" Van stared at him.

Asch nodded. "I've never seen anything like it. Van, if he attacks us, retreat. I was planning to find out more about his capabilities and then possibly do the same. Dammit! So close! How the hell did you miss this?"

"I thought the replica was unaware the seventh fonon even existed." Thinking back, Van realized something that made him scowl. "To slow his development I told him that if he managed to get the hang of fonic artes I would give him some books on them to study in lieu of training. He might have decided to conceal his progress in order to have more of my attention and then impress me at a later date. I thought he didn't have the attention span for that. But such an impressive arte? Or did he only learn it after coming here? Damage nullification: the only arte I can think of that does that is the second Yulian fonic hymn, and it's possible Tear has learned it and he observed her using it. Not to mention that was his first hyperresonance."

"Dist, make yourself useful and go scout the area from above," Asch ordered.

"Do as he says," Van confirmed. When Dist was out of earshot. "Asch, how are you holding up?"

"Largo, Legretta, Arietta, Sync, all under my nose. I saw Arietta two hours before Sync thought that replica managed to poison her, and it was my own arte that finished Sync off. That dreck played me like a…" Asch's strength tore a small branch off the tree, manifesting his frustration.

"Calm down, Asch." Van put a paternal hand on his shoulder. "He's _your _replica, after all. I should have realized he couldn't be as useless as he appeared."

Asch stopped growling but still looked sullen.

Dist's chair came down next to them. "Good news, I spotted one of Jade's energy blasts. Reduced to such a basic technique: how marvelous. They're thataway."

"Good work, Dist." Van turned back to Asch. "Asch, stay here. It's going to want an explanation, and that will give me an opportunity to deploy my trump card."

"Trump card?"

"I gave the Kimlascan soldiers at Kaitzur an edited version of the facts, and they were willing to loan me a fon slot seal in exchange for delivering the replica straight to them, and then on to Akzeriuth."

"Clever." Asch frowned. "He knows they exist, Largo used the one we brought on the Necromancer. A veteran would know that you usually only see one in a lifetime, but he may have planned for another, or the Necromancer might, knowing that we were willing to use one to obtain Fon Master Ion. Dist, did you get any impression of it while you were rescuing Sync? Does he know what the stakes are?"

"According to Sync, he went straight for the talisman and was angry at us for making use of the Ion replica despite the risk to his health. Also, he seemed to think that Asch was the fake, and said something about Tear and that beastly Jade telling him something about Van that he'd hoped wasn't true. It's very possible that he might have figured out more by now, or Jade has, but who knows?"

"So that Ion talked." Van grimaced. "It shouldn't know about the Score of Akzeriuth, otherwise it wouldn't have escaped Daath to try to create peace so futilely."

"The Necromancer is a soldier of Malkuth. If he were to find out about that Score…"

"There's nothing he can do to prevent Akzeriuth's destruction. Our goal here is to prevent _your _destruction, Asch. It's the only stable replica of you we've ever managed to create. We need to take it alive and keep you alive."

"It's harder to capture a dangerous opponent than kill them," Asch reminded Van. "I insist on going with you. If we can't take it alive then I die either way."

Van sighed. "I'll try to distract him from you. Dist, hover above their location. We'll catch up."

That was practically ordering him to taunt Jade. Of course Dist obeyed with alacrity.

"Guy, how much did you tell Van?"

"Just what the soldiers on that landship told me. Why?"

Luna couldn't risk saying more until the fight was over.

"Because he followed you up here riding some monsters after getting the Kimlascans to give him a fon slot seal." Luna would have liked to take a breather while they waited for the next group to find them, but this was urgent. "He's planning to take me straight to Akzeiruth, and he met up with Dist on the way."

"How very inconvenient." Jade took his spear out again. "What's the plan?"

"We need to get you to Grand Chokmah. With Van here that's going to be tricky. We can't just run, Dist would spot us from the air and those monsters are faster than we are. We can't just put you into your costumes and pretend you were never here: Dist spotted one of your energy blasts, Jade." Luna tapped his foot to get rid of that nervous energy so he could think. "Hyperresonance can be used to go from place to place but I've only done it once and I didn't control it so I have no idea how to."

"Better the devil you don't know," Tear said grimly. "We can't risk fighting my brother like this. There's too much at stake."

"Dist's en route," Luna warned them. If only there was some way to switch his body with Asch's: he didn't want to walk off and leave Asch behind in a replica body. Dist might find out somehow.

"_I could teleport to you and blame it on you."_

"_You think you could aim like that?" _

"_Possibly." _

"My, my, my, Jade. Strange to see you keeping such low company after the way you treated dear Professor Nebilim."

Apparently that was just asking for it. "Are you going to run away like a coward this time too?" Luna drew Asch's sword and tossed it to his left hand. "Tell me, how's Ion's imposter doing?"

"Oh, he'll be up and about in no time."

"Oh, he'll be up, all right. In the fon belt. In fact, he already is. That makes you, Dist the Runny, one of two god-generals left. Once you're out of my way no one will keep me from finding out the truth!" He didn't dare try hyperresonance with Dist here to distract him. "Let the six fonons of the physical realm combine at my command: be conducted in the celestial harmonies and submit to the flow of time! Holy Radiance!" Much better. "Tear, your knives should be able to hit him now!"

Dist hurriedly backpedaled as Luna debated casting it on himself and hoping that even if he was hit he would be able to summon the hyperresonance safely. No, it wouldn't protect him from a fon slot seal and words could be just as dangerous a distraction as blows.

"_I'll do it."_

"_What?"_

"_I'll summon the hyperresonance. Van wants me to stay back and only step in if necessary."_

"_How do we explain it?"_

"_You know… an accidental one happened to you and Tear, and we're far more connected than you are. If I cast an arte on you while you were casting that Holy Radiance on yourself, and we both focused on getting away, I think that should do it. And if I were accidentally caught up in it trying to fight you then Van wouldn't have any reason to suspect." _

"_Why not? Let's give it a try." _Luna cast Holy Radiance on Jade and Guy, just in case.

"_We'll be there very soon."_

"_I know, I've been keeping track." _

"Luke, what on Auldrant have you gotten yourself into? I'm surprised at you, letting an officer of Malkuth trick you into killing my soldiers. I thought you had better judgment than this."

"I'm surprised too, Master Van. I thought you had better judgment than to… No, I thought you were a better person than someone who would do something like this to his own student. Students. But you're here, and so's he, so now we'll see who your real student is!" Luna began to cast.

"None shall heed thy call," Asch started to say, his arte that lowered fonic attack. "For thy power is as weak as thy will! Si…" The world started to vibrate, resonating. No, hyperresonating. Perfect. "Damn you!"

"The ashes of the sacred flame. That name suits you." Luke sheathed his sword as Van threw the fon slot seal. It went right through him. "You're as dim as those ashes. Now we'll have to wait until Master Van finds us to have our _real_ fight."

"Asch!" Van called in dismay, although anything else he might have said was lost as they vanished into gold.


	7. Chapter 7

Apologies for the delay, lack of net. Trying to get this posted as quickly as possible, will edit later. When I originally wrote this, I was on one of my kicks philosophizing about gameplay-story integration and thinking about how we try to quantify performance in the real world. Baseball player stats, for example. In theirs, where it's a measure of fonons and such?

I could have sworn I had author's notes added to this file, but that version may have been lost in the shuffle. Bah.

* * *

"Where are we?" Anise tried to swim, but there was nothing to push against but air. "We're not falling, are we?"

"We must be in the core." Tear looked around, amazed. "I can't think of where else we would be."

"There certainly are enough fonons here for it to be the heart of the planet storm," Jade agreed. "Don't worry, Anise, if we're in the core there's no ground to hit."

"That's a relief. Are you okay, Ion?"

"I'm fine, Anise." He came up to her and took her hand.

"How did you do that?"

"There's nothing here to push against but fonons, so I tried using my fon slots."

"Hmm." Jade experimented. "That does seem to be effective." He stood up straight. At a 35 degree angle to the rest of them, forcing them all to either tilt their heads very uncomfortably or straighten themselves out relative to him. "Tear, could you try casting first aid on our sleeping beauties?"

Luna and Asch had wound up curled around each other, wrapped in their robes.

Tear began to cast the arte, but the seventh fonons around them coalesced, startling her. A red-gold figure started to emerge, but it seemed as though it was pulled apart as quickly as it formed, ending up a wavering ghost formed of what had to be the seventh fonon. Tear and Anise drew back, surprised. Ion stepped (or did a good imitation of it) forward and genuflected. "Are you Lorelei?"

"Yes. I am Lorelei. Thank you, all of you, for aiding my perfect isofons. They are the bearers of this world's last hopes, Yulia's will, and my own wishes. The Light of the Sacred Flame, fragment of my soul." Lorelei's arm-shaped fonons reached out to touch the two who had fallen asleep, as Tear and Luke had after arriving in Tataroo Valley by this method. "Please, do not let them suffer the fates bestowed on them. If they are lost then all is lost. The one who would seize glory does not understand what he has done by dividing them. Their strength is greater as two who aid each other, as the might of my pact with Yulia was greater than my own, then any they could have possessed as one."

"Second-order hyperresonance?" Jade queried. "It would require two individuals."

"It is not a matter of sheer power but of endurance, Emperor of Heaven."

Now Jade drew back. "Excuse me?"

"That is the meaning of your name, inscribed in the score. Jade Balfour. Jade, the stone of wisdom, immortality, and dominion. Balfour, the fields where flocks may graze in safety."

"My name is Jade Curtiss."

"And a noble emperor you would be, if that were to come to pass as ordained by the Score. Yet noble in defeat, I fear, oh last emperor of Malkuth."

"The only way I could possibly come to the throne is if…"

"Why let tradition stand in the way of love when all know that their noble traditions are doomed?" Asch and Luna had not stirred as Lorelei's power and self cradled them. "But I shall refrain from speaking of what I hope shall not come to pass."

"I dearly hope so."

"One who… Tear." They could tell Lorelei smiled. "Luke, who has become Luna and Aska, shall need your help. No, for them the future is not set. It has been a very long time since that was true of any of us. Still, please, lend them your strength."

"I'll help them, I swear it on the pact Yulia made."

"She would be proud to have such a daughter. Do not look so sad, Fon Master. You were the first to accept them with full understanding of their true natures. Even they do not fully understand yet. That alone makes you the greatest among the Controllers of Sound, for you are the first to truly listen, oh one who seeks completion. If you wish to give them other gifts, then your long life and true happiness are the greatest gifts that can be given to those who love you. Power they have, Ion. Strength they have. Lend them your caring and your strength of heart, for that is what they still need to learn."

"I understand, Lorelei." Ion stood up.

"You, who were born to the line of Brilliant Guardians and has chosen to become a just man," now that eyeless gaze addressed Guy, "your ancestors accepted the guardianship of the Shining Gate that bars the path to the Trees of Life. Please, choose your own way, as you have done since you went to the side of these children. You have done so much for them that it is truly selfish of me to ask anything more of you."

Guy shrugged. "If there's something you want to ask, go ahead. I can always say no."

"The Shining Gate possessed two gateposts. One in the land called Hod: the other in the miner's city. If that city were to be destroyed the gate would fall, and only the Traitor's Gate and Children's Gate would remain."

"The… Albertesque, Daathic and Yulian Fonic Seals that protect the sephiroth?" Ion asked, frowning.

"Yes. I am sorry, I do not… I possess the power to be understood by all who hear me, and often that means that the root of the matter is conveyed and not the recognizable surface."

Ion smiled. "I don't mind interpreting you."

"I do not wish to cause you any more trouble." And finally, "Tower's Fortune, your luck is a chancy thing. Yet there are some things that you can rely on. You have an enemy, do you not? One who threatens all you hold dear?" Anise didn't answer. "He is their enemy as well. Think on it."

"…Thanks." Anise folded her arms, regarding Lorelei thoughtfully.

Now Lorelei turned it attention to its children. "Light of the Sacred Flame your birthname. Fragment of my soul your birthright. The one who would seize glory wished to steal yours, to reduce you to nothing but tainted ashes. Your true name is Aska, Brilliant Spirit, Lord of the Heavens and those that fly there, and I honor thee."

Asch's, Aska's met Lorelei's. He nodded, accepting that name.

"Fragment of my soul, the light that kindled the sacred flame. Scion of Lorelei, savior spoken of ages ago, when the truth was still known. You are not simply light, but an aspect of radiance. You are not simply song, but a verse of it. I, the murmuring rock, the singing world, pay tribute to the voice that sounds in the heavens and dances to the music of the spheres. Luna you were named, and Luna you are."

Now Luna opened his eyes, smiling.

"Before the war that destroyed the old world, it was understood that the fonons possessed many selves. Undine and Celsius, both of water. Sephie, Yutis, Fairess: the trinity of air. Long before the power of the seventh fonon over time was discovered, tribute was paid to the ruler of the fon belt, the guide of souls, and the spirit of the moon, the singer in the night." They could hear the pain of the memories as Lorelei revealed that, "But Aska perished striving to liberate the souls trapped in the miasma and Luna was silenced by the pact, for madness and freedom were too precious to risk in a world so near endless silence because of those who wished to extinguish that light. Over time, people came to think that Luna was an aspect of Rem, the fonon of light alone, instead of the seventh fonon."

"The moon casts not just light, but shadows. It flickers like a flame, it flows like water, it is solid as earth, it floats in the air, and it brings dreams of the future and memories of long ago." All six other fonons and memory particles made up the seventh fonon.

Aska wasn't so sure. "But I'm human. I'm not just the seventh fonon, so how can I be part of the fonon sentience?"

"Aska perished. You are Aska reborn. In death your spirit may become Aska again, I hope, but for now you are mortal." A flicker of Lorelei touched his face. "Only you could free Luna and guide him to this world. I have missed you. I have missed you both. Aska, please take this." A sword appeared. "This is your sword, Aska. It fell into the core when you fell. Please use it to sever my chains. I wish to be taken to your realm, Aska. I wish to be reborn in a world where this nightmare is over."

The sword was accepted. "Guardian of this world, I swear that your lonely vigil will soon end."

"Thank you. Luna…" Lorelei held out an orb. "I'm sorry I stole it from you."

"I'm sure you had a good reason?" Luna shrugged and took it.

"It was a good reason… at the time. Use this to disperse the fonons of the score, to burn it away. Combined, the sword and jewel are now called the Key of Lorelei."

Luna walked forward, ran a hand through the flickering that made up Lorelei. "You're so lonely, and it hurts you so much. It makes Aska pass out to just read the Score, and you were forced to _be _it. You're walled off from us because otherwise we'd feel your pain. I'm so sorry it took us so long. And we can't yet, can we? The miasma's still there. As long as it is you have to stay here, or everyone will die."

"With this…" Aska looked thoughtful.

"Don't even think about dying." No. It was unthinkable to Luna.

"I won't." It wasn't an option, not after they had come so far.

"I won't lose you. Not even if it costs me my own life."

"I'll make sure to stay alive, then." Aska swung the sword, not surprised to find the heft familiar. "With the sword to gather it up, and your jewel to purify it we can both free much more per death and free small amounts without deaths. Casting that arte won't be necessary, either, if I focus."

"What would we need to do in order to destroy it before the end of the year?"

"In fact, anyone killing a seventh fonist with this sword would free a large amount." Aska placed his old sword in the item bag and sheathed his own sword. "Go to war with the Order, preferably."

"All those people who ignore Lorelei's screams and the screams of the people they condemn… Uh, no offense guys." Ion, Anise, and Tear were members. "I don't like killing. But Mohs is trying to start a war. He wants thousands of people to die. So… We'll stop him. We'll stop the war from happening. I promise."

"You take care of that side. I think I shall pay a visit to Daath." The sword was drawn again, Aska beginning a practice form of a style he knew by heart but not by body.

"I think there's somewhere we need to go first."

"Baticul?" Are you serious?

"Yes. If we're going to make everyone understand that the Score isn't the truth, then we have to tell them what the truth is."

"Strange to hear you speak of truth, Luna."

"I like pretending, Lorelei, not_ lying-_lying." Luna realized he was pouting. "We'll tell them that we know, and that we're not going anywhere near Akzeriuth."

"And that Baticul counts as a miners' city."

"Aska!"

"It's not like they would stay dead. No one will until all are dead, and following the Score to its conclusion leads to the death of all. It's in their long-term best interests."

"And Van said that keeping you there and experimenting you would be in your long-term best interests."

"It was, just not the way he intended, but I see your point."

"Lorelei? This has… I understand things a lot more now, but could you show us how to do this? It would be nice if we could control where we ended up when we teleported, for one thing."

"I could restore all of your memories to you as well as how to use your power, if you wished."

Luna shook his head. "Lorelei. I know you missed us, and it's sad that we don't remember you, but we have time now. You'll be free soon. But Aska was forced to be a soldier, and I was a prisoner, both of us not treated like people but weapons, one forced to kill and one held in reserve. And I'm already starting sound all poetic just knowing that Luna isn't just a name. I want to be a person, a human. I want to be loved for who I am, not what, and it's hard enough for me to be honest and act normal as it is."

"I am sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Luna reached forward, focusing. Lorelei solidified a bit. "Aska, help?"

He sheathed the sword and stepped forward. His right hand touched Luna's left, the other reached out to Lorelei. There was a flash of light, and then there were three.

Luna and Aska were both still dressed as Asch, but while Lorelei shared their appearance he wore a golden robe that looked vaguely like the traditional garb of Yulia City, where Tear had grown up, and a lot like a dress. "Oh, thank you!" Now that he had a body to cry he wept, arms wrapped around them.

"How did you lose your body? She killed you, didn't she. She killed you with my sword and Luna's jewel." Aska's voice was hard.

"It was my idea. The miasma was killing everyone who dared leave the shelters without enough protection and the shelters themselves were often breached, and they still kept fighting, it would not end until all were dead! And they fought because they had discovered my power, they fought and died in order to conquer _me_! I had to stop it, I had to, no matter what."

"It's okay, Lorelei, it's okay." Luna stroked hair so like their own. "If you were dead, if time was dead, then they couldn't force it to change. But you're alive now, and we're here, and we won't let anything happen to you."

"I didn't think that I could be brought back. I thought that I would have to return to the fon belt and be reborn."

Aska patted him on the head, not all that comfortable dealing with crying people. "I think you've forgotten who we are as well as the other way around."

"You may be right," Lorelei admitted sheepishly.

"There are three of us for a reason, you know." Luna mussed up his hair now. "Hey, if you were just born, I'm not the youngest anymore!"

"You have seven years of memories. Lorelei has two thousand. You're still the baby, Luna."

Luna stuck out his tongue at Aska. "Lorelei's sick of having to be the responsible one. Look at him, Aska. We're taking care of him and that's that."

Aska looked unhappy. "I don't know how much we can do. Lorelei has to stay here until the miasma's gone, and we have things we need to do."

"I wish we could… Ion? Would you mind doing me a huge favor? Please?"

"What is it?"

"It's really boring here, I mean, unless you like flying, and Lorelei's not used to having company so he'll probably be pretty boring, oh, but you'll stay if he does, right Anise?" Luna grinned.

"Wait, you want us to stay here?" Anise asked.

"Could you? Lorelei's been really lonely for so long. I don't want to leave him here like this. You're really nice, Ion, and you're really fun, Anise, so please?"

"What about food?" Anise brought up the practical before Ion could open his mouth.

"Hyperresonance can be used to shape matter. I could make you anything you want," Lorelei suggested.

"Can you make gold?"

Lorelei nodded, pointing at his robe. "This is cloth of gold over silk." A conductor and an insulator. It sounded obscenely luxurious, but while the concept of a Faraday Cage was known only to the most cutting-edge fontechists on Auldrant the power flows in the Core weren't something to be treated lightly. Lorelei would protect anyone who was here, but didn't want to go to that much bother all the time when it was just himself and he could just wear something.

Cha-ching! Anise put on her cutest little face. "Of course we'll stay and play with you! Right, Ion?"

"Sure. I'd be glad to help."

"And this will also keep Van and Mohs from getting their hands on you. Good thinking, Luna." Aska mussed his hair now.

"Oh, like Ion has to worry about that with us protecting him." Luna attempted to muss back.

Lorelei chuckled, just a bit, and then stopped, wondering at the sound that had come from his own mouth. "I missed you."

"And we you," Aska told him.


	8. Chapter 8

The trouble with characters discovering that they're gods is that it has risks of it being a deus ex machina. A sudden power-up that they only win because of.

In this fic, they were already winning, thanks to the powers of teamwork and Asch being someone who deserved the title of Special Ops god-general instead of an idiot. So the divinity thing is more redundant than anything. In the game, it was the threat of Van that terrified the governments into not following the Score etc. Since they're kicking Van's ass, they're going to have to pose that threat, in order for the world to go back to the way it was before the Score, and to keep another Score from being made.

Also, I like my gameplay and story integration. In Auldrant, people are basically powered up by absorbing fonons into their bodies: that's why a fon slot seal drops Jade's stats as well as costing him his spells. Just like we have all sorts of means of measuring physical strength, weapon strength, etc., it's very likely that their militaries developed means of measuring those fonons in order to determine enemy capabilities and their own.

So while it would seem odd in our world for people to talk about 'fonic attack,' it's very plausible that it's normal to talk in terms of stats on Auldrant. It's not like we don't try to quantify performance on Earth. Think about how people would discuss a baseball player's stats.

By some miracle, I have internet access. I was going to edit this more before posting, but no time. Will fix the boringness later.

* * *

Now that Lorelei was taken care of, "I am heading to Daath, Luna to Baticul, Jade needs to go to Grand Chokmah, Ion and Anise are staying here, as well as That Cheagle." Which had only been allowed out of the Item bag when Tear was present and Aska wasn't.

"Oh, right." Luna fished him out. "Here you go. Hey, Thing!" He shook Mieu teasingly.

"Yes, Master?"

"This is Lorelei. He's me too… sort of." Luna looked at him. "And he looks like he actually wants you, so he can have you." Luna tossed him over.

Mieu's ears waved up and down in excitement after Lorelei caught him. "Lorelei? Really?"

Lorelei nodded, blushing just a bit. Cute…

"I now understand why cheagles are considered sacred animals by the order of Lorelei." The corner of Jade's mouth twisted up. "I wondered what a monster breed could possibly have had to do with the pact between Yulia and Lorelei. The folklore version of the cheagle's creation can't be accurate unless the 'fon master' who transformed them was Yulia, since she was the one who gave them the sorcerer's ring."

Tear looked terribly mournful.

"So that leaves Tear and Guy," Aska concluded now that that was settled.

Looking up at her, Lorelei noticed she was staring at the cheagle. "Do you want him to go with you?" He held Mieu out.

"No, no, I couldn't possibly."

Lorelei smiled. "You remind me a lot of Yulia. She was very dear to me. I wouldn't have let just anyone control my power. Please, don't think that she was a terrible person because the only solution we could find to such a terrible problem begat such horrors. She did the best she could, more than anyone could have asked of her."

"Thank you." Tear had grown up with everyone saying that her ancestress was a hero, and then she'd found all this out and thought she might have been the greatest villain there had ever been. It wasn't that simple, but if even her greatest victim thought Yulia was a good person then Tear knew that she could be proud of her.

"Tear, what do you want to do?"

"I have to stop my brother."

"I know that," Captain Asch, Aska, reminded her, still her teacher. "It looks like Luna and I will be going to Baticul first. Do you want to come with us?" Of course Guy would be coming with them.

She nodded. "I have to apologize to your mother for abducting her son, for one thing." Since it seemed that their father wouldn't truly care.

"You _have_ to come. Aska cowering behind me is going to be priceless."

"Cowering?" Guy asked, puzzled.

"One word, Guy. _Natalia_."

Aska groaned, putting his head in his hands. "She's going to…"

"Be all disappointed in you, and then once it sinks in yell, cry, or both."

"Change of plans. You're going to Baticul and I'm going right to Daath to get started smashing fonstones and killing people who get in my way."

"You can't run forever, Aska."

"Watch me."

Guy had to laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

"Who's Natalia?" Anise asked.

"My fiancée. Well, Aska's technically," Luke revealed. "Although probably not for long. Seven years is a long time to carry a torch and then find out your love was refusing to come back to you instead of it being your fault for not being able to get through to them."

"Or she'll tie me to the throne so I can't disappear again."

"It's a pity I'm going to have to miss this." Jade sighed. "Ah well. Perhaps the yelling will be loud enough to be heard in Grand Chokmah."

"Guy?"

"Yeah?"

"Please keep an eye on Luna. We can keep fon slot seals from working on us now, and there's not really much else that could let them pin him down long enough to kill, but…" Aska _worried_.

"I could come to Daath with you," Luna offered.

"No. You know what I am going there to do, Luna. I have waited a _long time_ for it." Longer than he'd known, and those seven years had been long enough. "I am going to cleanse that serpent's lair if I have to burn it to the ground." Liars, deceivers, promising prosperity and concealing death…

"And I've waited a long time to show them who I really am, and that they're not going to be able to just use me to kill so that they can have their victorious war." Luna nodded, half solemn at the deaths and half smiling at the fun. "I want to scare them, just a bit."

"Don't go overboard," both Aska and Lorelei reminded him at the same time.

"Excuse me, but St. Binah is relatively close to Grand Chokmah. I doubt Van would head directly there, but he knows I vanished with you and he knows I would want to report, either that or go to Baticul. Can you do anything about this fon slot seal?"

"Release."

"Thank you." Well, wasn't that interesting. The only real method of taking down a high level fonist except another high level fonist and Aska could get rid of it with a single word. Was there anything that could defeat a fonon sentience except another fonon sentience? He would have to look into it. "By any chance could you deposit me in Peony's chambers?"

"Not a problem," Aska told him. "I snuck in there once as a training exercise."

"You can only go to places you've been?" That didn't make sense.

"I can only aim for them," Aska corrected. "If I hadn't been there I would have had to ask Lorelei where you were talking about."

The tactical implications of that… my. "If you would, then."

"Right now?" Luna looked disappointed.

"Why not?"

"I guess you're right. Goodbye then. Nice meeting you." Jade realized that Luna had met very few people and that Jade was probably one of the, oh, easily in the top twenty people he cared most about. Possibly the top ten, if barely. Easily in the top ten people closest to him, since he'd been told about this far before his parents, his theoretical fiancée, and so on.

"You're the one who can teleport, Luna. Feel free to visit. I'm sure you and Peony would get along splendidly." Seeing Aska's look of horror Jade knew that was indeed a sure thing. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Aska focused and sent Jade to Peony's rappigsty of a bedroom. There would be no more corrupting of his Luna. He was bad enough already. Although Luna hadn't been able to do much in the way of pranking without breaking his cover, so he had seven years of only being able to come up with clever 'intimidation tactics' for Aska.

They had woken up in the correct bodies, probably having switched during the imperfect second-order hyperresonance, but they were both still dressed as Asch the Bloody.

He'd grown to loathe this uniform. Luna had the right to pitch a fit if anyone tried to make him wear anything he didn't like, which was how he got away with an undignified bare stomach and a picture of a little monster on his back, but Aska had killed too many people he didn't have anything against while wearing this uniform, both on Mohs' orders and Van's secret ones.

Hyperresonance could reshape matter as well as destroy it, so…

"Those look like dyed pinions," Luna commented. "Natalia made me help her fletch arrows sometimes."

"They're not dyed. I think they're from something called a simurgh." Whatever type of monster that was. How had they ended up as the ornamentation on his armor? He'd pictured those areas with enamel texture, flared pieces of metal, something along those lines, not multicolored feathers inlaid into golden armor.

"You've also got some on the sides of that tiara."

"Circlet."

"Tiara."

"Circlet."

Lorelei laughed. "One of your titles was Lord of Eagles."

"I wonder what I'll end up with?" Golden light appeared between Luna's hands and enveloped him. He looked down. "I look good."

"You look like a dancing girl." Except for the flat chest. The shirt was about the same amount of coverage as Luna's undershirt (not that Aska paid much attention to clothing), leaving his stomach bare, and the matching cloth-thing wrapped around his waist that vaguely resembled a Chesedonian robe looked like a skirt. They shaded between purple (for night) and red (one of Lorelei's colors) His arms had lots and lots of gold bangles, Lorelei's other color, and so did his bare feet when he kicked one out from behind the skirt.

Luna ignored him. "Wow, check out the stats on this equipment." He reached out and a staff topped with a crescent shape in the center of which floated the Jewel of Lorelei, Luna's Orb appeared in his right hand.

Aska stared. "How do _a tank top and a wraparound skirt_ have a physical and fonic defense bonus of five hundred each?"

"Still want me to change?" Luna grinned.

"At least put something on over it."

"Alright, alright." Luna was used to wearing a cape: he felt naked without one (as opposed to half-naked). "Hmm, Phantom's Cape…" Luna spun around. The color was entirely purple except for embroidered gold stars. "Slit it down the back…" There, that felt like his style. Agility bonus of three hundred, 80 percent resistance to first fonic artes, and twenty percent resistance to sixth fonon. He jangled the Fortuna Bangle happily.

It covered his arms and mostly covered that tank top, as well as covering more of his chest. "It will have to do." Luna was described in legend as female… Aska was _not _thinking about that.

"Oh, let up, will you, I'm wearing shorts under this." Luna looked at his staff thoughtfully. "Here you go." He held it out to Tear.

"What? I couldn't possibly…"

"It's a staff. I use a sword. There's no point letting it go to waste." Luna frowned. "I don't think we just created these. That would have to be very, very hard to do so fast, make something that works so well from scratch."

"Shadow spent a long time working on that cape," Lorelei volunteered.

"So do I have any swords where that came from?" Luna focused. "Staff, staff, spoon, staff, fan-thing, staff…"

"I should have some." Aska managed to figure out where the armor had come from. He hadn't meant to summon it, but armor meant this armor to the part of him that had this power. "Here."

Luna raised an eyebrow at the short sword. "Only a thousand physical attack and nine hundred fonic? That's wimpy, Aska, really wimpy." Guy's eyes widened: maybe by _their _standards that was wimpy, but not by humanity's.

"It's associated with the first fonon and has a high chance of putting enemies to sleep, as you would have seen if you had looked closer." Aska was miffed, he'd thought it was appropriate. "Also, it looks like it's meant to be dual-wielded with my sword, meaning it's very suited to being used left-handed."

"Oh, sorry." Luna took the Eternal Slumber apologetically and sheathed it.

Now that Luna was well-protected Aska looked at his own equipment. "What the… Lorelei! What did Yulia_ do_ with my sword, dig a ditch through diamond? It's out of tune!" An unenhanced blade couldn't have an attack of more than eighty. The additional damage came from the fonon effects, and since the seventh fonon used sound his sword being out of tune even slightly drastically weakened it.

"Um… not diamond."

"What, then?"

"The passage rings needed to be really sturdy to last for thousands of years, something that couldn't be damaged by anything but a hyperresonance…"

"You used _my sword_ to _whittle parts for fontech_?"

"Don't kill him, Aska! You weren't alive to ask for permission and the world was ending!"

"Final Justice is weaker than that little short sword, Luna! No fonic attack! None! I don't know how long it takes to tune this thing, and I don't want to know!"

Lorelei was clearly wishing Mieu was large enough to hide behind. "I would have tuned it, I just can't focus enough with the Score ringing in my ears."

Asha took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. "I'm stuck with it for now, but you're tuning it as soon as you're freed, understand?"

Lorelei nodded.

Asha dug through his swords for a better one. There was this… He looked at it, looked at the currently vastly inferior Final Justice, and sighed. "I never did get the hang of dual-wielding…" He put the Radiant Arc in his sheath and looked at Final Justice again. He didn't want to just stick it back wherever he'd gotten the other things from: it deserved to be used. "Guy, would you…" He held out the sword.

"You're loaning me the Sword of Lorelei? I mean, Final Justice."

"I can't think of anyone else worthy of her. You were my best friend as a child and Luke's only friend. I would wield her myself, but I need something more powerful if I'm going to be smashing fonstones." He sighed. "Destroying disharmonies like that is what the Final Justice is for. To leave her stuffed in an item bag while Auldrant's survival is at risk?"

"Hey, lighten up, it's just a sword." Anise interjected.

Both Guy and Aska stared at her. "What?" Anise shrugged. "A staff is a staff. You use whatever's stronger."

"Maybe it's a guy thing, but swords aren't just swords," Guy told her seriously. "Giving someone your sword is a big deal. It means you are entrusting your honor to them, because you are responsible for whatever they do with that sword. Generally it's only done between lords or ladies and their liegemen, family, or blood-brothers." He turned to Aska. "If you're just loaning it to me because I could use a better sword to protect Luna, then I accept. But I don't think that's a sword you just loan out without it being a big deal."

"This sword is composed of the pure seventh fonon. She is, to a very real degree, my soul." He knew that somehow, as he knew that two and two made four. "The same with Luna's Orb." That way he wouldn't be the only one embarrassed like this.

"My family used to have a sword that contained our family honor. It's not the same thing, but I understand how big a deal this is." Guy looked stern. "I can't take it while there is deception between us. My name is Gailardia Galan Gardios, rightful Count of Hod, and my father's sword, the Jewel of House Gardios, hangs in your manor's entryway."

"Ah." Aska understood instantly. "Then will you accept this sword in place of that which was stolen from you until it is returned to you?" That would make them even for now, but afterwards all bets would be off.

"What if I use it to kill the man who slaughtered my family?"

"Luna and I will trust in the honor you have demonstrated over all these years. And besides," the corner of Aska's mouth tilted up. "He owes you a reckoning in any case, and us as well. I am not one to interfere with the outcome of an honorable duel. However, if you doubt your cause, that would not be the sword to wield in its name." Aska and his blade hated injustice. "We are going there for a reckoning. Do as you see fit. And if my father were to attack Luna, who I give you this blade to guard, then I would hold you at fault only if Luna were to be harmed."

"I shall accept those terms." Guy finally accepted the blade Aska offered to him hilt-first.

"Luna?" Tear questioned him now that the drama was over.

"It's fine, Tear. And if you're going to Daath with Aska I want you to have it. It's very, very good with healing spells and you could probably put half of Daath to sleep with it, not to mention force field." Please, keep Aska safe.

"Alright, Luna. Thank you."

"Luna…"

Luna sighed. "Fine, Aska, you can go straight to Daath if you want to _that_ badly. I'll be fine since Guy will be there and we should probably ease them into it anyway, unless we want to give Uncle a heart attack." Inbreeding meant the direct Kimlascan royal line had several health problems. Malkuth's imperial family had Peony's father, who had ordered what was done to Hod, and Peony, who fortunately for everyone was as sane as the next man.

Of course, the next man was Jade.

"Thank you. Tear, are you ready?"

"Yes." Aska focused and they vanished.

Once they were gone, Guy wondered, "Luna, you don't mind that I'm not who I said I was?"

"Guy, I wasn't who I said I was either. I'm not really one to talk about being honest with people. You forgave me, and you're my friend. That's all that matters."

"Thanks."

"I think I owe you more than you owe me. You were a huge help and probably what kept me sane, and Aska too now that I think about it." Looking away, embarrassed, Luna saw Ion. "Thanks for staying with Lorelei. I'll tell you how it goes, okay?"

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Ion assured him.

"Can you tell Aska to, uh, my parents aren't Oracle Knights, but…"

"I will tell him to spare them if it's needed," Lorelei assured Anise.

"Thanks. So… want to gamble?" Anise smiled like a shark. "I have dice."

"Have fun. Guy, are you ready?"

"Sure."

Luna frowned.

"What's the holdup?"

"You have a good weapon, but… can I replace your armor and so on?" Luna looked sheepish. "We might end up having to fight a lot of the White Knights or something."

"Hey, I'm not going to complain."

"Let's see…" Luna realized that there was more than one 'closet' on the other side of the hyperresonance he was using to get this stuff. "I used to have worshippers?"

"More like fans."

"Well, that explains why I have a month named after me." Luna felt around a bit. "Did I know the meaning of the word modesty?"

Lorelei didn't answer.

"I mean, it's not that you're not hot, Guy, but you're _Guy_. You were a lot more my father than Father was. Now I sort of understand why Aska was all weird about this outfit." Luna blushed a bit. "Lorelei, do you have some armor I can borrow?"

Lorelei nodded, focused. Red-gold armor appeared. "I don't wear armor, but robes: this was someone else's. Will it do?"

"Looks great." As soon as Guy gave his ok he found himself wearing it.

"I have lots of bracelets, at least." Luna handed one over finally. "And… Um… I can't believe I have ten weapons and over five hundred different accessories. Maybe the legends were right when they said Luna was a girl."

"We're not male or female," Lorelei reminded him.

Luna pointed at his chest. "Luna might not have been male two thousand years ago, but I am, and this is embarrassing. What sort of thing do you want, Guy?"

"I don't know." Accessories were accessories.

"Here." Luna took out a little statue.

"What's that?"

"A rebirth doll."

"Are you sure?" Those were amazingly freaking rare and expensive.

"I refuse to spend hours agonizing over what to wear. Or what you're going to wear. And it's hard to go wrong with one of these." Luna stuck it in one of Guy's pockets and took a deep breath. "And I don't think I can get away with delaying any longer. Aska already broke the big fonstone in the cathedral that has pieces of all of the first six and I'm not even in Baticul. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready when you are."

"I don't think I'm going to get readier. I've been waiting to do this for so long and now that I'm about to do it, prevent the war, tell them who I am, everything, I have stage fright." And wanted a hug. He could go get one from Aska as soon as he got this over with.

Only Guy hugged him.

"Thank you," Luna murmured softly.

"It's not exactly in the job description, but hey."

"I'm ready now." Luna stepped back so he could focus. "Okay, let's go." And they went.


	9. Chapter 9

"Why are we on the roof of the manor?"

"I've never been outside the manor, remember?" Luna looked around. "I was only up here once, too, before you found me. That's the castle, right?"

"Right." This was the route Guy and the other servants used to hop the fence. Luna had managed to sneak after someone once, looking for Guy, and Guy had gotten in so, so much trouble. He'd felt sorry for Luna, thinking that was his one view of outside the grounds, but if he'd looked out through Aska that made it a little better. "Follow me, you can get out through here."

When they reached the courtyard and were passed without comment Luna looked strange. "No one recognizes me. I wonder why I expected them to."

"Well, everyone in the manor knew who you were."

"But no one on the outside had any idea, and this is outside even though it's Baticul, huh. That makes it easier."

"Easier?"

"To be here." This wasn't Asch's walk. Asch or Aska strode, stalked, or marched, depending. Always forceful. Luna stepped quickly, gracefully, almost gliding, with the coordination possessed only by dancers and_ really, really good _fighters. Luna's outfit might as well have screamed that he was a high-level fonist, and Guy's screamed professional swordsman/high-level 'meat shield.'

No one of their power would_ possibly_ have been let into Baticul's upper levels without a good reason to be here, and no one wanted to get in the way of someone so powerful with such a good reason. Luke's red hair was noticed, but although it was a sign of royal blood there were plenty of nobles in the back of beyond with it, including those lunatics who refused to abandon the Duchy of Inista, although they always had the flower that symbolized their branch of the Lanvaldear family braided into theirs. _Always._ One of Suzanne's second cousins had visited the manor and wouldn't leave the bedroom once his wilted until after Guy was sent down to the florist to buy some fresh ones. The man could apparently hit any monster you cared to mention at two hundred yards and he was too scared to look outside without rafflesia flowers.

"Is his majesty granting audience?" Luna asked the majordomo.

"Yes, and he will be for another two hours. Currently he is meeting with Grand Maestro Mohs, but they should be done in a half hour."

"The Grand Maestro hasn't left yet? Excellent, then I can still give my report to them both." Luna started towards the stairs. "Come along, Sir Cecille, we're late enough as it is."

"Excuse me, but who should I announce?"

"Announce? I don't have time for that nonsense, and my uncle isn't one to stand on formality with the family. He'll know who I am even if you don't." Luna didn't so much barge past him as ignore the fact there was any possibility the man would get in his way. "In Lorelei's name, what kind of majordomo doesn't recognize the tertiary heir to the throne…" Luna sounded disgusted as he left the servant in their wake.

The Kimlascan line of succession went Princess Natalia, Princess and Duchess Suzanne fon Fabre (making Duke Fabre prince consort), and then Luke fon Fabre.

The majordomo didn't challenge them again. Guy was frankly impressed.

Luna flung open the doors almost casually. Mohs kept talking about war and provocations and other such nonsense. "Oh please. Why bother preaching to the choir, Grand Maestro?"

They all looked at him, knowing they knew him and yet unable to pin a name to the face. The few seconds of silence that caused allowed Luna to improve on his grand entrance. "The only person in this room who doesn't know the truth is Princess Natalia, and if anyone cared a whit about her feelings you wouldn't have encouraged her to fall in love with your sacrificial pawn."

"What are you talking about?" Natalia stared at him. "…Luke? Guy?"

"Close, but not quite." He sketched a bow. "Although you've been calling me that for seven years now. Seal!" The doors slammed shut, and little would budge them. "I'm sorry, Natalia, but Luke fon Fabre died seven years ago." She gasped. "Which is rather odd, because the Score said that he would die this year, sacrificed by his own father and yours along with an entire city of innocent people in order to win Kimlasca a war against Malkuth. Leaving behind a grieving princess to rally the people against 'Malkuth's' treachery."

"Lies! Who are you, imposter!" Duke Fabre drew his sword.

Luna flung his arm out, hoping that Guy would obey the command to stay back. "I am Luna, the power of Lorelei your son inherited made flesh. Honestly, does anyone actually _read_ the Score they claim to obey? According to Lorelei himself, Fon Master Ion is the first person in the so-called 'Order of Lorelei' to actually listen to a word he says. The Score of the sixth and seventh Fonstones is Lorelei's warning to the world: the Grand Fonic Hymn Yulia's instructions to her descendants. And instead of heeding them, you conspired to throw away the salvation they granted to you. Perhaps Vandesdelca, the heir of Yulia's line, is right. Perhaps this world does not deserve salvation, perhaps none alive are worthy of entrance into Eldrant."

He met each of their eyes. "The very light of the sacred flame, Lorelei's manifestation in this world, was born into your midst and you were warned, the Score itself foretold that his death at Akzeriuth _would bring about the downfall of Auldrant_. But the Order didn't want to reveal that the Score would have to one day be discarded or all would die, they did not want to reveal that the Planet Score included the planet's Score of Death. So that was held back for the sake of forcing the masses to follow the Score."

"Madness…"

"Be silent!" Luna commanded, and smiled when Mohs was forced to obey by his power. "If you are truly pious then you should give thanks, for you are now the first Grand Maestro in the Order's history to heed Lorelei's commands."

Then he turned back to the king and his father. "'ND 2000. In Kimlasca shall be born one who inherits the power of Lorelei. He will be a boy of royal blood with hair of red. He shall be called the light of the sacred flame, and he will lead Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to new prosperity.' Oh, you've heard that part of the Score, Natalia? Tell me, have you heard this next? 'ND 2018. The young scion of Lorelei's power shall bring his people to the miner's city. There, the youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca, destroying himself and the city.'"

Natalia gasped. Luna's eyes softened. "Don't worry, Natalia. 'War shall envelop the Rugnica Plains, and Malkuth shall lose territory. The blessing of Lorelei shall vanish from this world, which will ultimately lead to the downfall of Auldrant.' Oh? It seems even you haven't heard that last line, Mohs. 'ND 2019, the forces of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear shall march northward, through the Rugnica Plains. After inflicting atrocities on the villages in their wake, the army shall surround the fortress capital. Within a fortnight, the city shall fall. The Kimlascan army shall stain the Malkuth throne with the blood of its last emperor."

That last part shocked all of them. "Yes, that's a score of death for an individual. Even if it's not the individual you're thinking of. So? It's Lorelei's Score. No one has the right to challenge my right to reveal _any _of it. To continue, 'Their howls of victory shall resound throughout the land.' Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? For you, the victors, at least. Not for all those raped and murdered innocent civilians. 'ND 2020. A mountain of corpses shall bury the fortress capital. Death and disease shall envelop the city. The plague born thence shall become a new poison unto humanity, killing all within its reach.' Yulia created the Score to save humanity from the poison of the miasma, a poison that also came about because of a foolish, greedy war to control the future! And_ this_ is how you replay her heroism and Lorelei's suffering!"

Luna went into overlimit, glowing with the light that had made so many read the tales and mistake him for a manifestation of the sixth fonon. "Its spread shall mark the true end of Malkuth." And now the words he spoke became truth instead of quotes, became memory, because that was the nature of the Planet Score, the Planet's memory, the memories of every living and unliving thing. Here is your victory, exactly as you shall experience it, exactly as you shall remember it.

The faces of his father and the King made him smile. "Kimlasca shall enjoy decades of prosperity…" Natalia's expression became somewhat less pained, for she loved her people. But this would happen, "as the plague of Malkuth grows. Ultimately, the plague shall be brought into the Kimlascan kingdom by a single man." Brought there by the Order itself, they saw, to fulfill the Score since Kimlasca's policy of slaughtering all refugees had proven too successful.

Now King Ingobert felt himself die, over the course of months, of that plague, and Natalia remembered watching him die. Remembered having Mohs killed, as she'd callously had so many killed, and waking up one morning with an itch, only to lower her hand to scratch it and feel an open sore. They were dying, had died, would die, and they trembled with dread, caught in those pains, that horror, both what they would suffer then and the dawning realization of what stood before them now.

The power it took to keep the guards from bursting in, to decree fate and overturn all decrees: this was madness, and they were in the palm of its hand.

All fear was fear of the future, fear of the unknown, and so it was fear itself that stood before them, held them spellbound.

"The Light of the Sacred Flame shall approach a Kimlascan city of fon machines, seeking a way to purify the taint."

The Light of the Sacred Flame? Luke? Yes: the young scion was the one who would have perished at Akzeriuth. Luna would have died, and Aska would have lived. Discovering this passage had horrified them. "Without the power of Lorelei his efforts shall prove futile, and he too shall perish."

Aska had often only been able to read a few words of this at a time, and he had been able to go so rarely because the risk of being caught there in Mt. Zaleho was so great. The fonstone there had been abandoned since the true Ion's death, however, since the replicas were too weak to endure reading it and the success needed to be preserved in order to break the Daathic Seals. He had been able to go far more often, but that meant more of that pain.

"ND 2100. The Last Daughter of Yulia shall descend into the core." Not Tear. Even worse. "In final atonement for the failure of her ancestress she shall end the suffering of the world by silencing the Murmuring Rock." Lorelei… "Thus shall Auldrant be destroyed by the miasma and turned to dust. This is the end of Auldrant."

He let his power fade away.

"…Damn."

Luna turned around to see Guy supporting himself with Aska's sword. "You've already snapped out of it?"

"The Last Brilliant Guardian shall die failing to prevent the fall of the Shining Gate," Guy told him, and Luna knew he'd heard that in what Luna spoke. "Man, I'm glad I missed out on _that_." He hadn't had to live through it, which lessened the impact.

"The _new_ end of Auldrant, Guy. The last one was two thousand years ago. This can be changed. Listen!" he ordered them. "The power of Lorelei created the Score in order to maintain the world long enough for its salvation, and now the power of Luna and Aska shall undo the Score to bring about that salvation! The sword of Final Justice shall destroy the chains of fate, the Orb of Dreams shall restore mankind's power to create new futures! The heart of time has begun to beat again, and this world _shall_ change!"

Then Luna concealed his power and forced them to snap out of it. "Do any of you have a problem with that?"

Natalia wept, for the Luke she had lost years ago and just watched die twice over, for the kingdom she had been raised to love as fiercely as the original Luke once had. For its citizens and its discarded honor.

"Lies! Illusions! The Score will bring about prosperity!" Mohs' protests sounded closer to raving.

"As it did for Hod? As you wished it to for Akzeriuth?" Luna's eyes grew hard. "You swore yourself to Lorelei. Keep that oath in life or keep it in death."

"I have always kept it by preserving the Score!"

"Guy…" Luna paused, realizing what he had been about to command.

"I carry Aska's sword until mine is returned, Luna. And this is what that sword is for, isn't it?" Guy stepped forward. "What Final Justice, what the Sword of Lorelei is for."

In that moment Luna heard echoes of other times. "Then execute this traitor." Luna turned his back on Mohs. "You have forsaken this world, and Lorelei forsakes you. You have abandoned hope, and Luna abandons you. You have committed treason, and Aska takes you."

Luna saw the reduction in the miasma then, and knew why Aska was silent. He had work to do, bloody work.

When Luna turned back Mohs' body was gone.

"Attempt to bring about Auldrant's end by bringing about this war, and you too shall die the deaths of traitors," he warned them. "I am Luna. Yes, _that_ Luna, although I am not an aspect of the sixth fonon, but the seventh. Two thousand years ago, Lorelei, the guardian of Auldrant, was discovered by mankind. In order to control the future he guarded they made war on him and each other, trapping countless souls in the form of miasma. Aska, the guardian of the dead and the fon belt, attempted to stop this and free the trapped souls but perished in the attempt. Lorelei saw that the only way to keep them from determining the future or destroying it was to create a future. He choose Yulia to create a pact with to accomplish this. However, without Aska's power to purify and my power to change the future he created was nothing but a crutch."

A crutch was necessary for an injured man, but once they healed… "Learn true fear, the fear of the unknown, because the future is no longer written. It may contain doom or prosperity, joy or grief. From now on, you must chart your own courses through that uncertain future. I suggest that you do not anger me, oh mortals, for _I am that future_."

Okay. That was probably enough putting the fear of god into them. For now.

Luna thought he could face the manor now. "Come, Gailardia, Swordsman of Aska. Let us leave them to their thoughts."

When the door closed behind them Luna sighed with relief.

"You were pretty scary in there."

"I had to be. They've had two thousand years of believing in the power of the Score, thinking that chance and hope were nothing compared to it. I mean, the only thing they remember me for is being a light in the sky, Guy! And they think that Aska is just a task of Lorelei's, and I suppose we're all the same soul, but…" Luna shook his head. "Well, Aska never got along with people well. He didn't really have much to do with them. I think they thought he was Sephie or Rem a lot of the times he did show up and there were witnesses." Witnesses left alive, that was.

"Sephie?"

"One of the three aspects of Sylph."

"It sounded like you were doing some kind of ritual in there."

"I'm pretty sure it was. I think that the others were generally fine with just smiting people but Lorelei and I… the seventh fonon heals. Even Aska, all he does is surgery, really. Like destroying the miasma so that the souls can move on." Speaking of moving on, "Come on, let's go get your sword."

"What are you going to tell Lady Suzanne?"

"The truth. Well, the truth _differently_." He needed to scare his father and uncle, but he didn't want to scare his mother. "All this power and I don't think I can heal her illness. Not if it's what I think it is." He started down the stairs.

The door opened before they had gotten very far. "Luke?" Natalia followed him.

"Natalia. I'm sorry for lying to you."

"So you were Luke, all these years? What happened to my Luke? Was it, was it painful?"

"…Van Grants understands some of Yulia's wishes, but not enough. He wanted to make a replica of Luke to die in his place at Akzeriuth. But the fragment of Lorelei that Luke inherited at birth, me, came to inhabit that replica, as a body entirely of the seventh fonon was more suitable. He named me Luna, although we didn't understand that it wasn't a coincidence until we spoke with Lorelei. Van named him Asch the Bloody, and he became one of the god-generals because to come home would have condemned Akzeriuth to death and you to grief. The reason that Luke could contain my power is that he is the third aspect of Lorelei reborn. Aska, lord of death, rebirth, and the fon belt died two thousand years ago trying to end the war for control over the seventh fonon. We, both of us, were Luke. Dividing us ended the life of the boy who loved you. Aska possesses his memories, and that's why I came here. He can't bear to face you, for the memory of what you should have had."

"I… I would like to get to know you both. And… I won't let that happen." Not over her dead body. "I won't let that happen." Not to what was left of her Luke, not to anyone."

"Thanks, Natalia." He smiled at her, genuine although a bit rueful. "I'm still me, or the me you knew for seven years, anyway. I'm sorry I lied to you that I didn't remember. If they'd found out I was a replica, they would have had me killed, and then Aska would have died at Akzeriuth." The way she'd just seen. She would have liked to say that no, they wouldn't have killed either of them, but it would have been a lie.

"I understand." Even if she wished she didn't. "What are you going to do now?"

"See my mother. Our mother," Luna corrected himself. "I've never been me for anyone but Aska, and now I'm starting to remember being who I was before. Luna Luna, the one the month was named after. I don't think they're a bad person to be, and they're probably me, except for the female part, but it's a bit overwhelming. I don't know how to act like me."

He turned away, taking a deep breath and not inviting comments. "And get back your sword, of course, Guy."

"What are you going to do after that?" Guy wondered.

"I don't know. Either go help Aska or keep Lorelei company."

"And after that?" Guy prompted.

"I don't know. Except that I want to stay with Aska, so you'll have to ask him that too. And Lorelei will probably need us, but Lorelei doesn't want to stay on the core, so that means up here, the fon belt, or the moon."

"The moon?" Guy and Natalia both said at once.

"Uh, yeah. Luna, remember? There's air and stuff, don't worry. Or there should be. I should probably ask Sylph before… I'm talking about asking Sylph if she housesat for me." Oy. "I have a house. A bit, okay, a lot more than a house, actually. I keep knowing stuff, like that my hair was gold instead of just a bit more golden than Asch's. His hair was red-red, crimson, as Aska. And he almost never came down to earth. I did, but I was worshipped, or honored anyway. I didn't act like a normal person or be treated like one, and I want that. I want to wander around the world with Asch and get in trouble and sing and…" Luna frowned. "I don't sing all that much. Just to Aska in our heads sometimes. But I think I did a lot back then."

"It's a lot to take in. But you're still Luke to me, Luna or whatever or not."

"Thanks, Guy. And Gailardia or whoever you are, you're still the person who helped me stand up when I was learning to walk, and put up with me being a brat, and… so much else." Luna hugged him. "And Natalia, you're my cousin and I love you too. Aska's really proud of you, that you kept your promise. He can't be your husband, but he still cares a lot about you."

Natalia looked sad. "I understand why he wouldn't want to return to Kimlasca."

"It's not just that." Luna hugged her. "But that was what made him start to realize, you're right. He didn't want to see you like this, Natalia. We didn't want to break your heart but you deserve the truth."

"I always," Natalia had to pause and take a deep breath before resuming, "hoped that one day he would wake up. It seems so foolish now that I thought you were him, but I didn't want to believe that he was lost to me forever. At least, at least the Luke that was my dear childhood friend is still alive in some way. At least I can see him again." As she started to embrace Luna back she remembered, "Aunt Suzanne! You said you hadn't seen her yet, yes? Oh, you must hurry!"

"Do you know what Van's up to?" Guy asked as they headed out the main doors.

"Of course. Lorelei keeps track of everyone, which is really, really embarrassing for him." Luna shuddered. "He may be the planet's memory but do you think about all your memories constantly? He sensed the three hyperresonances, to Grand Chokmah, Daath, and here. He thinks that we sent Jade home and sent Dist up there, Aska escaped to Daath, and I went home, which is right." Although was Baticul home? He'd never been outside the manor and the manor was his prison, not where he wanted to stay. Home was with Aska for this Luna and on the moon for the other Luna, since the fonon was always one and so it didn't matter how far away Aska and Lorelei were.

"You mean Lorelei really does see everything?" Guy stepped back. "You're right, that's creepy. He can't tune anything out?"

"No. Although, really, having to see people bathing, and, uh, you know is a lot less bad for him than having to see people being murdered." The thought was shudder-inducing. "And the Score foretells everything, so he's had to see two thousand years of deaths constantly. Poor Lorelei. And Aska would have died along with ten thousand innocent people, and…" Luna shook his head. "Although, really, I didn't watch people having sex and Aska didn't watch people dying all the time either. You just have to make sure that it goes right. Oh, birth I mean. And rebirth, of course… Although our responsibilities overlap a lot, since it's the same fonon. Even though we really should have seven aspects, everyone says, since we're responsible for so much stuff."

"How much of your old memories did Lorelei give you, anyway?" Guy wondered as Natalia went forward a bit and waved the guard out of the way since Luna had hung back and clearly didn't want to reveal his identity just yet. That was why Guy was keeping him busy talking, since returning to the manor was going to be hard on the kid.

"Not really anything, actually. The fonon does have to do with memory, so I just know things. The seventh fonon is made up of the other six combined and memory particles. Lorelei relates to Gnome and Undine, Aska to Efreet and Sylph, and me to Rem and Shadow." Luna frowned, thinking about something. "I'm pretty sure Aska was always male, although he took human form like… barely ever. Not as bad as Efreet or Gnome, but still. He usually showed up as a bird. Lorelei, the murmuring rock, the singing world, barely ever showed up either and usually pretended to be me. So… Um. I should talk to Undine. This is confusing. Or, um, no, not Undine." She wasn't called the Maiden of the Mists for nothing.

The ancient Luna might have had no shame, but this Luna did.

Really.

He wished Aska was here.

Aska was with him in his heart, in the fonon-self they all shared, but he was going into the manor now, where he had been trapped for so long, and even though he knew he could vanish away, or fly away, or level it to the ground he was still afraid.


	10. Chapter 10

_Because Lorelei doesn't get to be much more than a passive victim in the game._

_This is the fairly short final chapter of _Hunting by Moonlight. _Like _Nebulae, _I'm ending it at a point where the characters essentially have it worked out. I put my thoughts on that ending idea in the final chapter of that fic, actually. __The thing is, the cleanup is the _important _thing. Which the game fails to realize or doesn't want to address, the way Luke's trauma is handled for example. They even leave him in the manor! Still, after this the reader can probably figure out what will happen in the future on their own. _

_I have a few other _Tales of the Abyss _fics close to completion: I'd like to have the project labeled 'healing' ready to begin posting at this time next week, or perhaps 'falling' since 'miasma' requires not just a serious ending with boss battles but going through and standardizing Luke's character and the changes to it in there. I also need to decide if I'm ever going to post the fic I have with Lorelei and Yulia. It fits with what we see in the games, in fact the amount it doesn't just go with expectations would help make the point of how much history has been lost since those days and how wrong the world's perception of Yulia and the Score is, but there's all this extra revealed background Dawn Age material that completely Josses it. Normally, I love to incorperate background info like that, but dealing with the headdesk that is the Ar Tonelico settei books has kind of burned me out on that. The purpose of having a universe bible is to avoid making stupid blunders like having three sets of the same numbers, one of which is completely possible due to a little thing called the gestation period, and technobabble should support the game's physics, not render every single ending impossible since Misha should have collapsed into a pile of goo and died the instant Shurelia sang Suspend and Aurica... Good god, the worldbuilding fail! It's worse than chatspeak! _

_On the one hand, normally working with canon when that's possible is important to me and on the other I really don't want to toss out around fifteen thousand words after I figured out how to portray everyone and such. So we'll see. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own _Tales of the Abyss, _Namco-Bandai and other rightful owners do. No infringment intended or money made, please don't sue._

* * *

Whether he headed for Baticul or Daath first, the first step was to take the Katsburg ferry to Chesedonia, so Van headed south again until he had to stop for the night.

Four god-generals dead so quickly and Asch vanished along with the replica Luke? He'd thought the child was harmless! Idiotically loyal, groomed for foolishness, unwilling to listen to the Necromancer or anyone who spoke against his beloved Master Van. Yet the sight of Asch on the Tartarus appeared to have turned Luke's own loyalty against his master. Was he fighting more to prove himself to Van or for vengeance on Van for the betrayal? Either way, Luke would have to die for Asch to live.

What to do next? Largo, Legretta, Arietta, Sync… Dist was only loyal to the dead and Asch still didn't know the truth about the replica world. True, Van still had many other faithful supporters among the Oracle Knights, but the loss of his strongest and most loyal subordinates would make everything far more difficult, not to mention how was he going to make Akzeriuth happen and lull the world and Order into not only a false sense of security but a war that would keep it too busy to oppose Eldrant's rise without his most valuable pieces?

"Vand…. Um, excuse me, Commandant Van Grants?" Van cursed himself for not noticing the approach of the person who spoke so hesitantly. How had they managed that?

"Yes? What is it?" He covered his slip by continuing to stare out into the forest, certainly not surprised at all, much less threatened.

Silence, for a few moments, as he picked out the sounds of thick robes. "I… " The speaker's voice seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Painfully young: more so than even the replica Luke. "It's nothing," they said finally, and the voice did sound a bit like Luke's. Not as childish as Luke's, not as angry as Asch's, sadness was this one's defining trait.

Younger than the voice he heard in the Score: far more human and alive. And yet… Van turned around, hand on the hilt of his sword, to see a bowed head covered in red-gold hair: more golden than Luke's in fact. Evenly split between that red-orange and gold, or perhaps not even that, ever-shifting hues that almost hypnotized as the light changed or strands of hair shifted as his head bowed further.

"Who are you?" Van asked, knowing that he already knew. "What are you doing outside the core?"

"Aska and Luna restored me to life." Lorelei slowly, no, hesitantly, raised its head to meet Van's eyes, its own full of an emotion Van could not, or would not, name. "All that you have done is my fault, but… No, to say that is to insult you." Lorelei lowered its eyes again, shook its head. "Those in the presence of either of my other selves possess free will, yes, but… The reasons you made the choices you did were my fault. Not even Yulia's, because it was my weakness that made the Score necessary. But Aska sees you as an enemy, as a threat to all that lives, and Luna sees you as a cause of fear, as a threat to this world's future. They know my feelings, but… If you go to Daath where Aska hunts or Baticul where Luna walks you will die, oh one who would seize glory. I will soon be free of the Score, but it is not just my pact with Yulia that makes me wish to protect her children."

Lorelei's hands twisted together. "I would have done anything to have spared you." Spared him Hod? "I am too weak because of the Score to oppose either of them, and they won't listen to me since my own free will was taken from me by the Score along with my life, but I will still do my best to protect you, even if I can't do anything but warn you." They both knew that Lorelei's warnings had come true for two thousand years.

"Your other selves." Van had no reason to think that Lorelei would lie. After all, the Score had been the honest truth for two thousand years, and even though Lorelei was compelled to come to his aid if he sang the grand fonic hymn he hadn't sung it. Luna was known to be the name of a sentience, but "Aska?" That name… "Asch. Asch and Luke."

"Their true names are Aska and Luna. My other selves. Aska died fighting the miasma and Luna was sealed away by the Score as the greatest threat to it. I have missed them." Around the edges of the murmuring rock's voice resounded a desperate loneliness, so newly sated that it was still raw. "I do not want anyone else to die because of me, Vandesdelca. The Score is almost over, the hope that was born in ND 2000 almost fulfilled. I hoped against hope, since it was my fault Luna was sealed, that the small deviations of the few replicas made and Luke's birth could prevent Hod. I should have known better, really, but I hoped that…"

Lorelei, Lorelei speaking of preventing Hod? He should have tried to get more information, but he couldn't take it anymore. His sword swung out, and down.

He'd sliced Lorelei through, hit it to the ground: there should have at least been a grunt of pain even if he had no magic lens to tell him how much he would have to hurt Lorelei before it died, as if killing this manifestation would destroy it. Instead Lorelei just lay there, so very sad and broken. "I am sorry I could not scream for you." It wanted to apologize for that? "I feel everyone's pain, you see, and there are many who hurt more than I do right now. If I were to scream because I felt as much pain as being run through I would never stop screaming. Although there was a time when I screamed, and screamed… but no one who heard cared." They read and followed the Score anyway. "So I stopped. I am sorry." He raised his hand, reaching out to Van. "And I am sorry for this as well."

Lorelei had been called Mother Auldrant in ancient times, before the discovery of the seventh fonon, with good reason. Aska might guard the dead and dying, Luna might ensure birth, but it was Lorelei who protected and healed, who watched over all of the living.

The people of Auldrant: every one of them was precious to him.

"My poor child," he murmured, picking up the dusty-haired babe."My poor, brave child." Lorelei knew all of Vandesdelca's terrible memories, the events that had distorted him into this. The spirit that let him endure it and cling to the hope of a better world.

None of them could truly hate him, not when it was their fault, after all.

Not when Lorelei had planned Van's childhood and Hod's fall out in advance, scripted it out as Yulia bade him, so there would be someone to fight for Eldrant, for the survival of _something_.

"Oh one who would seize glory, you reached it. Because of you, Luna and Aska are reborn and I am freed. Oh little glorious one. Our little Elca." Hard and cruel as he'd needed to be.

The legacy of their love, his and Yulia's, and they'd destined him for the cruelest fate and hardest task.

"I'll take care of you," he promised the child, even though he was too young to understand a word Lorelei was saying. "You'll have the life you should have had." That wasn't a prediction, not anymore. That was a promise.

He tucked the child next to his heart, held him lovingly and carefully as his parents never had, and began to sing for him, a song that was no longer a chain but only a lullabye, now and forever.


End file.
